By Susan Botting – Local Democracy Reporter for Northland

Two new community library hubs are being investigated for Kaipara after the council this week formally voted to sign up for more than $16 million in government Three Waters Better Off funding.

The hubs for Dargaville and Mangawhai will potentially include a library, digital facilities, meeting rooms and a multi-purpose space for events, activities and learning.

They will be designed to reflect Kaipara’s communities, incorporating history and te ao Māori concepts.

Kaipara District Council (KDC) Councillor Karen Joyce-Paki said the new Kaipara library hubs would provide facilities of the type Kaitāia, Kerikeri and Whangārei already had.

They would provide much-needed bumping places where the community could informally bump into each other.

KDC’s majority Better Off funding acceptance decision came after a feisty and sometimes polarised debate at the council’s August meeting.

The council signed up for the $16.14m Better Off money, to be paid in two parts.

The first $4.04m, available now, will be used to investigate and design the two library hubs.

The second, $12.2m, will be used to build the facilities. The second payment is earmarked for 2024 – after next year’s central government elections.

KDC general manager engagement and transformation Jason Marris said the Better Off funding was not government compensation paid for the council’s Three Waters assets.

It was in recognition of the significance of the transfer of responsibility for Three Waters to the water service entity, he said.

Morris said the amount available to KDC had been calculated based on population, deprivation and land was how they formulated how much better off funding would come to the council.

The money cannot be used for Three Waters infrastructure.

Kaipara Mayor Dr Jason Smith said people should not see KDC’s Better Off funding application as Three Waters support.

KDC Three Waters opponent Councillor Victoria del la Varis-Woodcock said accepting the money meant the council would not be able to speak out against the Three Waters restructure.

Smith said that was not the case.

“The Government has confirmed that applying for the Better Off funding package will not inhibit our ability to continue to exercise our democratic right to express our concerns with the waters reform,” Smith said.

He said the Better Off funding would come from Entity A’s Auckland Council and WDC. This was the first example of Entity A cross-subsidisation, with money coming from the bigger councils to subsidise the smaller KDC and FNDC.

Meanwhile, council at last Wednesday’s meeting also voted to say yes to more government Three Waters money via $422,000 of transition funding.

This supports the costs of divesting KDC’s Three Waters sector to the new inter-regional Northland-Auckland Entity A water services setup.

KDC acting general manager infrastructure services Anin Nama said the council’s transition funding meeting decision would make sure KDC’s Three Waters assets were on the table at the start of Entity A’s first new asset management plan for its Northland-Auckland realm was developed.

Entity A is to be one of four national water services entities taking over responsibility for the currently ratepayer-owned drinking water, wastewater and stormwater assets of KDC, Far North District Council (FNDC), Whangārei District Council (WDC) and Auckland Council-owned.

WDC is one of a trio of New Zealand councils challenging the Government in the High Court over ownership and property rights in relation to the transfer of these assets.

Nama confirmed that transferring “ancient” debt from the Mangawhai wastewater treatment scheme’s history to the new Entity A would also be part of the Three Waters transition process.

This would be looked at more closely later this year, with what would be a second government Three Waters Bill to be introduced about December. However a head start would be made on this work now.

• Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air