Growth has ground to a halt in two South Wairarapa towns, with wastewater infrastructure problems putting a stop to new housing developments.
Martinborough has not been able to connect any new builds to the sewerage network in about a year, and now neighbouring Greytown is in the same boat.
The reason? The local wastewater plants are at capacity.
The Greytown plant has already been serving 500 more people than it was designed to.
Greytown ward councillor Martin Bosley said: “It’s not a great situation at all. It needs desludging. It’s over capacity for its consent, we need to do a lot of work on it.”
South Wairarapa District Council chief executive Janice Smith, who’s been in the role for the past eight months, said she’s not sure if the plant has ever been desludged.
“I’ve heard the term 30 years mentioned, that it’s never been desludged. That is an issue.”
The problems have forced the council to pause new housing developments in Greytown.
Those with consents already approved or in train will still go ahead.
But a planned 200-lot subdivision is now on hold. The development would have boosted the town’s population by 15%.
Bosley said: “That’s hugely disappointing, not just for us but for the developers as well. Two hundred families coming here — that’s phenomenal growth for us, long term.”
Fewer homes meant fewer ratepayers to share the load, with only 7500 ratepayers across the district. Last year, South Wairarapa had the highest rates rise in the country at 20%, this year the average is close to 15%.
One business owner described the pain the rates were having on businesses.
“There are people in town who are having to close their businesses because of the rates. So, we’ll end up with no retail in Martinborough. We will end up being like Aspen, we’ll just be priced out of the market,” said Di Lusk, a business owner in Martinborough.
Neighbouring town also at infra limits
Bosley said the district has found itself in a “catch-22” situation.
“The way to get our rates down is to increase our population. More people paying rates means less the rates have to go up, right? Then, all of a sudden, you go, well we can’t actually build any new houses to house the people who want to move here.”
“It’s a terrible thing,” he said.
The neighbouring town of Martinborough has had no new subdivisions for about a year because its wastewater plant is also at capacity.
The town’s Mitre 10 has noticed work drying up for local builders.
Store owner Conor Kershaw said: “As opposed to doing new builds, doing jobs of substance with a lot of materials through, they’re doing a lot more repair and fix, renovations, smaller works, non-consented works, fences, decks, those sorts of things.”
He said some builders are also looking for work outside of the region, with one going as far as Hawke’s Bay for jobs.
“It’s concerning for them because you look down the pipeline of what work is coming and there’s not a huge amount,” he said.
Major builder concerned
A1 Homes is a major builder across Wairarapa.
“The Greytown and Martinborough areas probably equate to about 50% of our workload, so it’s a significant amount of work in jeopardy for us,” said Tim Fenwick, the general manager of A1 Homes Wairarapa.
He expects the pause on new developments to impact builders for some time.
“It will be at least two years after they start issuing consents again, so I suggest a minimum of four years we’ll feel the impact of it,” Fenwick said.
“It’s a concern for us, we need a solution sort of urgently to ensure the community doesn’t suffer long-term because this is a big setback.”
Desludging the Martinborough plant will be completed by the end of this year, but work on the Greytown plant won’t be finished until next year.
This gets the ponds to an acceptable level, but Bosley is unsure if it means new connections can resume.
The council is also assessing how much it will cost to expand both plants.
But physical works for those projects could take years to complete.
In the meantime, growth in the two towns is stymied.
“To have to do this feels like you’re choking yourself,” the chief executive said.
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
