A Watercare decision to restrict new connections to the wastewater network on the Hibiscus Coast is being labelled as disastrous by property developers in the area, who say the organisation has failed to do its job.
Late last year, Watercare revealed that any developments in the area which weren’t resource consented by 15 November would not be able to connect to the wastewater network until an upgrade to the Army Bay Wastewater treatment plant was complete, currently scheduled for 2031.
That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I still think Watercare did a bad job of conveying this. They are trying to say there is plenty of capacity, we didn’t plan poorly, but also we won’t let anyone else on the network.
It’s also super shit that they gave 24 hours notice and seem to think this was reasonable. I doubt any developments in planning could have suddenly got resource consent within that time.
The did explain this in the “Watercare responds” section, in a “we have to word this so it won’t cause problems in court” fashion.
The problem is their message was lost in the forest of “oh woah betide this property developer not being able to build” that was most of the article.
The article is 85% about the property developer and what they wanted, very biased and poor reporting.