Water problems push up rates

Napier City Council signed off its 2017-18 annual plan at a meeting on Wednesday, voting to increase the total annual rates take by 4.9 per cent. Earlier the council had proposed a 3.9 per cent increase but agreed at the meeting to take in an extra $502,000 to fund drinking water initiatives.

A report prepared for the meeting by council chief financial officer Caroline Thomson said the council’s capital plan had been amended to accommodate ‘‘costs associated with changing industry expectation around public water supplies following the Havelock North government inquiry’’. See more