Drainage Board rates

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 5

Drainage Board rates

Christchurch Drainage Board rates may be reduced this year. Estimates allowing for a 1.74 per cent ($327,371) reduction in the over-all rate requirement were approved by the board last evening. The rates will be fixed at a special board meeting in May. The board under-spent by about $2 million in the year ended March 31 and the carry-over of this sum was the main reason for the proposed reduction, said the chairman of the estimates sub-committee, Mr R. F. Wilton. Factors contributing to this $2 million surplus were: savings on maintenance costs because of the absence of bad weather and the effects of the price freeze; planned capital works of about $550,000 not proceeded with; and savings on salaries and wages because of the wage freeze (about $200,000). Although receipts last year were in line with the estimates, there had been an improved cash flow and this has also brought significant savings, Mr Wilton said. The proposed rate reduction reflected the healthy state of the board’s finances. However, strict financial control would be needed during the year to ensure that the estimates were met he said. The estimates provide for

a 7.75 per cent increase in gross expenditure for 198485 ($20,960,000 compared with $19,451,650 for 1983-84). This, coupled with the proposed spending on works financed from loan moneys, would make a busy workload for the year, he said. A main item of expenditure was a proposal to finance filter odour control works from revenue, $1 million having been provided for this. In the land drainage account, new capital works totalling $2.7 million were shown, compared with $1.9 million for 1983-84. A 3 per cent provision for increases in salaries and wages had been made, slightly more than the $8 a week cost-of-living allowance, Mr Wilton said. Mr R. S. Leach said that while the proposed reduction in rates was pleasing, not all ratepayers would have a 1.74 per cent reduction, because of changes in their property valuations. Decisions being made by the board were tying it to substantial expenditure and the reduction this year would not necessarily be a continuing one, he said. Reports will be prepared by the board’s staff on the lessons learnt from the Southland flooding. The chief engineer, Mr H. P. Hunt, reported that these included the need to have a tested procedure for emergencies, a good system of flood records, and an im-

mediate report on any emergency. In designing urban stopbanks, consideration must be given to secondary flow paths and mechanisms for dealing with floods which exceed design standards. He also suggested that large-scale buying of floodprone land was a viable option. The chairman of the development and construction committee, Mr T. B. Whelan, said the board was concentrating its flood control efforts on the Heathcote River, where the requirements were most urgent. The Styx River was next in priority and then the Avon. Mr Leach questioned the viability of the engineer’s suggestion of buying floodprone land. People did not like to be told what to do with their land and it would be very expensive to buy. It was also difficult to guess what land was flood-prone, he said. Avon weed Another trial to control aquatic weed with the herbicide, Torpedo, has had initial encouraging results. The herbicide was applied on March 20 and if the final assessment is also positive, the chemical may be applied in the Kerrs Reach area in spring.