MEDIA RELEASE
Ruapehu District Council

Date: Thursday 23 May 2013

RUAPEHU TRANSFER STATIONS SAFE

None of Ruapehu’s rural transfer stations will be closed following council deliberations on submissions to the draft Exceptions Annual Plan (EAP) 2013-14.

The recent public consultation on the draft EAP 2013-14 had put forward various possibilities for lowering rates if ratepayers were willing to accept lower standards of service which included closure of the Ongarue and Owhango Transfer Stations and removal of the remainder of the Discretionary Grants Fund.

Ruapehu District Council (RDC) Chief Executive, Peter Till, said that public submissions on both these possibilities were unanimous against closure of the Transfer Stations but mixed on removing the remainder of the Discretionary Grants Fund.

“These proposals were only ever possibilities dependent on public support,” he said.
“The purpose of putting forward these as proposals was to highlight that for rates to be lower than the proposed 3.4% average increase services would need to be cut.”

“As a small rural council Ruapehu has always stuck predominately to the delivery of core services so there is no room to make significant savings without cutting back on basic services.”

“Dropping the remainder of the Discretionary Grants Fund will only save $27,000 per annum while dropping of the Ongarue and Owhango Transfer Stations would have saved $104,000.”

Mr Till said that council is constantly evaluating costs and looking for efficiencies in how we deliver services to save money.

Although in this case submitters have clearly said they want to retain all Ruapehu Transfer Stations going forward it is probable that ratepayers will need to consider some reduction in services as a trade-off in order to keep rates down.

PETER TILL
CHIEF EXECUTIVE

ENDS

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