The Central Otago District Council has recognised there is a disparity with its districtisation proposal towards the Teviot Ward.

At the Cromwell Community Board meeting yesterday, Mayor Tim Cadogan said there had been a change in direction from where they had originally gone with districtisation.

“We have been contemplating a binary or all or nothing solution, but we have put in an option two now.”

The Teviot Valley Community Board’s submission outlined that it was unfair its ratepayers would have to pay an extra $233 a year for other pools in the district, if they were all council owned.

Option two was for the districtisation of property, parks, cemeteries, pools and museums but included a rating adjustment for the Teviot Valley ward to offset pool charges.

For the Teviot Valley under the revised proposed districtisation option, the new $2.7 million Ida MacDonald Trust pool would continue to be owned by the community, and only supported by ratepayer funding from its own ward - as would the Millers Flat pool.

It would also mean Teviot ratepayers would not have to contribute to the running costs of other pools in the district such as Alexandra, Cromwell and Ranfurly.

This would mean average rates for Cromwell would change from being $52 less a year to just $35 less a year, with the cost of the new hall still spread right across the district.

Formal consultation about the proposed changes with the community will start this month, with numerous town hall meeting sessions, followed by hearings and deliberations.

Council planned to rate certain activities across the district rather than by ward level, as it was particularly challenging in the less populated areas to maintain services - given the fewer ratepayers in these areas to spread the cost across. 

In the mid 1990s roading was changed to a district rate rather than a ward rate, and in 2015 council engaged with the community to change the funding of three waters to be at the district level rather than at the ward level.

A final districtisation decision will be made on September 5.

.