Both ECAN and Christchurch City Council are in the process of consulting on their draft Long Term Plans. These allocate budgets to projects for the next three years and also look out a further seven.

The Friends has made a brief submission to ECAN expressing concern about its monitoring of wastewater discharge consents, specifically from the Akaroa Wastewater Treatment Plant and the public toilets on Banks Peninsula. Read a copy of our submission here.

Read a copy of our submission to Christchurch City Council here. We are concerned that the budget currently allocated in the draft Long Term Plan is still based on the original volume of wastewater and a harbour outfall. As the volume of wastewater has now doubled and the Council is exploring much more expensive land-based options, we are concerned that if the budget does not increase they will be cutting corners on the implementation – at the expense of our local environment. We have asked the Council to investigate the overall cost of piping wastewater from the Peninsula settlements to Bromley and whether this is more cost effective overall than local treatment plants and disposal. We’re also concerned about the cost-cutting around provision of public toilets on Banks Peninsula and how the Council has built new superstructures without upgrading the septic tank or disposal systems underneath. Finally we’ve made a brief mention of the pressures of Freedom Camping and suggested that the Council push for a levy on campervans to be returned to rural areas to assist with the provision of toilet facilities.