Water and Golden Mile get a hard look at

A 65% increase in water funding has been put before Councillors.

Today Councillors and I were briefed on key proposals as part of the 2024-34 Long Term Plan. In February, we will vote on which of these proposals will go forward for consultation with the community.

Water infrastructure is a priority for me in the upcoming plan, and at my urging, officers have put forward a recommendation to fund our three waters (drinking, waste and storm water) by $1.1 billion, compared to $678 million in the 2021-2031 plan. This is a 65% increase and includes rolling out water meters as early as possible.

It does mean some tough decisions. One option is changing the delivery timeline for the Lambton Quay part of the Golden Mile project.

It makes sense that we take this opportunity to line-up the delivery of the Golden Mile with our other infrastructure priorities, including water.

This means that the Courtney Place upgrades will take place over the next two years, with the Lambton Quay upgrade being pushed back to a few years later.

The challenging budget decisions we have to make are made worse by ageing and earthquake-prone infrastructure, constraints due to inflation, cost-of-living pressures and the need to improve the resilience of the Council's finances.

It won’t be easy to find a balance between required investment and rates affordability, and community discussion will be paramount. We can continue to invest in making Wellington thrive, but we need to balance the pace of our investment with what we can afford. As a community, we need to decide what to prioritise.

I look forward to having that korero with Councillors over the coming weeks and settling on a draft Plan that we will then take out to the community, so you can have your say.