Masterton Council On Track, Report Says

Tuesday, 6 May 2025, 7:39 pm
Article: Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter

Masterton District Council has achieved 100% of its non-financial measures this quarter, putting the organisation in good stead for its annual report audit.

The results were measured across several areas: roads and footpaths, water supply, wastewater, stormwater, solid waste, community facilities and parks, and regulatory services.

In total, there were 41 measures across the seven activity areas, and of the 35 measures available to report this quarter, the council achieved all of them.

Mayor Gary Caffell said all too often, “the great work of council staff goes unnoticed”.

“These stats highlight just how well they perform in so many areas.

“Maintaining our water and roading services to a high standard is always a major priority for council and it is particularly pleasing that our response times are where we would want them to be, and are actually exceeding expectations in some cases.

“The challenge now of course is to keep up the good work, and I am confident staff will do exactly that.”

Some measures were only reported at the end of the financial year and were not included.

A report to the council’s Audit and Risk Committee, which would meet on Wednesday, said roading performance measures related to customer service response times, with all 37 urgent requests responded to within two working days.

Masterton’s wastewater services were also performing “consistently well” with all measures on track for year-end achievement.

The sewerage overflow response time was 24 minutes, no portaloos were provided this quarter, and there were no consent breaches.

In the solid waste space, all waste facilities, including urban and rural transfer stations, recycling and composting facilities, and landfills, remained fully compliant with resource consent conditions.

The amount of waste sent to landfill per person is tracking lower than the same time last year - 0.429 tonnes versus 0.469 tonnes - and was currently on track to meet the target of a 3.3% reduction by year-end.

Urgent customer service requests for parks and open spaces decreased this quarter, with 21 classified as urgent compared to 32 last quarter.

Drinking water was also fully compliant with Taumata Arowai standards.

The council also achieved its measures for regulatory services, but it should be noted that the council’s target is to process building consents, resource consents and code of compliance consents within statutory timeframes 90% of the time.

Statutory timeframes were legally binding.

The council’s annual report and performance would be audited at the end of the financial year.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

© Scoop Media

Local Democracy Reporting

Content from the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service is published by Scoop as a registered New Zealand Media Outlet LDR Partner.