Only $10K approved from $100K water issue fund

ONLY 10% of the $100,000 set aside by the Dunedin City Council for people and businesses affected by August’s boilwater notice for parts of the city has been approved.

This week, the panel in charge of issuing the money announced grants totalling $10,100 had been given to 13 applicants.

Fourteen had been received by the time applications closed on September 29.

Panel chairman Colin Weatherall said ‘‘a few’’ applications were still being worked through.

‘‘We aren’t being pedantic about whether some of the appli cations were a little bit late.’’

One of the outstanding applications was bigger than most and more information was required before it could be processed.

Not all businesses received the amount they requested.

‘‘We’ve applied a formula that is fair and balanced.’’

Some of the applications were for ‘‘quite small’’ amounts of money.

Mr Weatherall said he was surprised more applications were not filed.

Businesses had been given plenty of time to file applications and it was unlikely there would be another round of funding, he said.

‘‘The council did not have to do this. I think we’ll be seen to be fair.’’

In midAugust millions of litres of untreated water was released into the Ross Creek Reservoir, causing some cafes and restaurants to close.

It entered the city’s drinking water through a pipe which was thought to have been decommissioned. The council stopped the flow and issued a boilwater notice for parts of the city, which lasted four days.

The grant was created by the council for people and small businesses which incurred costs or loss of revenue because of the disruption.