Your Questions Answered: Advisory panel for Mangawhai wastewater system

In the last issue of the Mangawhai Focus, a letter to the editor from Christian Simon expressed surprise that the Mangawhai Community Wastewater Scheme would need further reticulation. In turn he asks if there is a law that compels those who can connect to a public scheme to do so.

Currently there are 1,630 properties connected to the scheme. Council’s investigations suggest that the processing plant has considerable additional capacity – at least for 4,000 connections in total. This was also the Auditor General’s conclusion. In order to enable connections to this level, reticulation needs to be put in place – in other words further wastewater pipes need to be buried along streets that do not currently have pipes. Individual properties along such streets can then have their wastewater systems connected to this pipe, and septic tanks can be disconnected.

On the second question of whether there is an obligation to connect to a public scheme, the answer is yes. If a property is within a certain distance from the public reticulation system, you have a legal obligation to connect. Councils can compel property own-ers to do so. The relevant empowering legislation is in Section 459 of the Local Government Act 1974.

The Mangawhai wastewater plant has capacity to process waste for up to at least 4,000 connections. It is of course also important that the resultant liquid generated from the plant can be disposed of. This liquid is piped some 12 kilometres out to a holding dam on a farm at Brown’s Road, from where it is sprayed onto pasture. The irrigation system currently in place will not cope with the liquid generated from 4,000 connections. Thus we need to decide when and how to expand the disposal capacity over time.

An Advisory Panel is established
In order to assist the Council to decide on where and when the reticulation network should be extended, and to decide on how and when disposal capacity should be increased, Council has set up a Community Advisory Panel. The Panel is made up of the following members from the Mangawhai community: D’Arcy Quinn (Chair), Dr Ian Greenwood, Dr Gordon Hosking, Darryl Reardon and Belinda Vernon.

Commissioner Richard Booth and I will also sit on the Panel.

The Panel will be supported directly by Council staff, including Chief Executive Dr Jill McPherson, and by professional advisers. It will be brought together next week for a full briefing on the Mangawhai Community Wastewater Scheme and the work that Council has under-way to enable it to make well-informed decisions. It is likely to meet periodically for the next six months.

If you wish to make contact with the Panel, please do so through Linda Osborne, the Advisory Panel’s Administrator, at losborne@kaipara.govt. nz.

New rating values
Property owners in Kaipara will soon receive a Notice of Rating Valuation from Quotable Value. Overall, Quotable Value reports that land values in the Kaipara Dis-trict have increased by 1.7% from 2011 to 2014. This compares with a drop of 24% from 2008 to 2011.

For residential property owners, the changes in values vary across the district. Mangawhai land values have increased by an average of 8% for instance, while land values on the western side of the district have decreased.

The Rating Valuations provide the basis for Council to set general rates from 1 July 2015.

Mangawhai hosts meeting of Local Government leaders 
On Friday this week, the Kaipara District Council is hosting in Mangawhai the quarterly meeting of Local Govern-ment leaders from our region. Members and officers from the Auckland, Far North, and Whangarei Councils will be attending.