Water meters on hold in Waipa
A proposal for water meters in the Waipa district has been put on hold after public backlash.
Waipa District Council was in the process of installing water meters at all district properties. About 8000 of approximately 12,000 had been installed with about 1000 on cross-lease sections.
And that’s where the problem lay.
The proposal would have seen those living on cross-lease sections required to split water costs evenly between the number of properties on the cross lease, regardless of how many people lived in each home.
Last week the Waikato Times highlighted the story of Norma Mackie and her concerns about paying for more water than she used as she shared a meter with two other properties.
Mackie’s concerns, plus many more, were the catalyst for the council deciding to put the proposal on hold until it could collect more information.
A letter sent out to Waipa residents last week responded to those concerns.
‘‘Some people are anxious about this approach and have raised real and genuine concerns with us,’’ project engineer Carl Smith said in the letter.
‘‘Given those concerns, we have put a team in place to work directly with individual householders over the coming months to potentially find other solutions.’’
David and Val Payne were among the concerned residents. They would have to share one meter between seven homes.
‘‘We thought the whole point of having a water meter was so you could control your bill, but it’s a bit unfair when it’s split between so many people,’’ Val said.
‘‘One house has a pensioner living on her own, and another has a family of five, they would not be using the same amount of water.’’
At first, council had told them they had the right to take it up with their neighbours if they thought any of them were using too much water.
‘‘But what is this, neighbours at war? We don’t want to do that, we’re a little community here.’’
‘‘We earn every penny we have, and we save, we don’t want to be paying other people’s bills,’’ David added.
Another concern of theirs was if one household didn’t pay, the water to all houses using the single meter would be cut off. But by law that cannot happen.
Council said water would continue to be supplied as normal, and the non-payment would be resolved between the non-paying property owner and council.
Waipa District Mayor Jim Mylchreest said he understood the concerns people had about splitting costs.
He had asked staff to hold off moving to a split cost solution, and instead put a team in place to work through issues on a property-by-property basis.
‘‘I can understand why some people would be really anxious about it – I don’t think that’s an unreasonable reaction.
‘‘The fact is, we’d prefer every single property had its own meter and most people feel exactly the same, but it looks like in some instances that might not be technically possible.’’
For some properties, the team will need access to understand how the internal plumbing works.
‘‘The message to cross-lease property owners and tenants is don’t panic, we’ve heard your concerns and taken them on board.
‘‘Now let’s work through the issues and see if other solutions might be possible and, if so, what the cost of those solutions might be.’’