ORC’s Chair Gretchen Robertson says it’s been a busy year, but in looking to the future, the organisation recognizes there’s more work to be done.

“Our focus was not only on delivering efficient services to the people of Otago, but on supporting community-led environmental initiatives for positive outcomes,” she says.

The ORC’s Annual Report will be considered by Councillors at a full meeting in Dunedin on Wednesday, 23 October. The report is available in the meeting agenda online.

Cr Robertson says during the year Council refreshed ORC’s strategic directions, setting clear goals and focus areas to realise its vision for Otago—"where our environment and communities thrive, ki uta ki tai (from the mountains to the sea).”

“To the backdrop of a challenging economic climate, and with proposed Government legislative changes still underway, we placed a strong emphasis on delivering a long-term plan which achieves organisational efficiencies, ensuring we give value for ratepayers’ money while continuing to sustain healthy and connected communities,” she says.

The development of a new Land and Water Regional Plan remains a priority for ORC, with a work programme in place to achieve a notification decision this month; with a Council vote to notify or pause the Plan to be taken on Wednesday, 23 October.

We are also committed to returning an increased dividend from Port Otago to the Otago community as part of delivering greater value.

“We’re proud to highlight ORC’s accomplishments in hazard resilience, significant growth in bus patronage, navigational safety, regional civil defence coordination, environmental science, biosecurity, and regulatory activities,” she says.

Other highlights for Cr Robertson included public transport services in Queenstown and Dunedin reaching record levels, with almost 1.9 million passenger trips in Queenstown and around 3.4 million in Dunedin during the past financial yea, a 51% increase in Queenstown and 21% in Dunedin.

In ORC’s environmental monitoring and regulatory roles, Cr Robertson says staff completed 1411 compliance checks, including consent audits, dairy inspections, and forestry site visits, while the Pollution Hotline handled 1095 incidents, with 101 formal enforcement actions taken in 2023-24.

She was “really pleased” that ORC’s annual ECO Fund was fully subscribed, again, this year, which supports targeted and general community environmental projects.

“We’ve also actively fostered community-led catchment management initiatives in the Catlins and Upper Lakes,” she says.

“Our valued partnership with mana whenua in Otago continues to underpin much of our work programme, with positive water enhancement work continuing through these partnerships,” she says.

This was exemplified by the remediation project for Te Hakapupu Pleasant River with Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki, plus partnering with other multi-stakeholder initiatives like the Te Mana o te Taieri project and Predator Free Dunedin, she says.

For the year ahead, Cr Robertson says climate change remains a crucial focus area for ORC.

“This year, Councillors endorsed the draft Strategic Climate Action Plan, and we’re now looking forward to seeking community input on this important initiative,” she says.

ORC’s work on a variety of natural hazards adaptation programmes continues for South Dunedin, the Clutha Delta, and Glenorchy/Head of Lake Whakatipu, while climate resilience projects for our flood schemes have made significant progress, she says.

The Annual Report outlines a total 79 targets sought in service provision. While 48 were “fully achieved” and 5 “partially achieved”, there were 25 targets which were “not achieved” – the latter spread across sectors Regional Leadership (5 not achieved), Environment (14) and Transport (6).

ORC’s Chief Executive Richard Saunders says that while he is pleased that 48 targets were achieved overall, it shows that there is more work for the organisation to do in setting our work programme and delivering those things for our community. 

We did however achieve some great results in the face of “challenging and changing times throughout the year”, and especially in the Safety and Resilience sector, which met 11 targets, and missed none.

He noted that under Safety and Resilience was management of Flood Protection and Emergency Management, both of which were under duress earlier this month around coastal Otago and some places inland, but both were reported to have functioned well and helped keep communities safe.

He said of the 25 targets not achieved, a number were linked to the deadline for the final delivery of reports, reviews and plans, many of which had since been completed and were pending formal delivery.

“Much of the work was completed within the financial year however we did not meet the target as set out in the service levels,” he says.

There were also a number of measures which did not reach the high targets set in the service measures. These included bus punctuality times; sitting at 93% in Queenstown and 82% in Dunedin for the year, against a target of 95%.

Mr Saunders says there are many things which can impact on our ability to reach our service targets, both within and outside of our control.

“However, these measures are something the community can hold us to account on so we will continue to have a strong focus on meeting them,” he says.

October meeting details

The Agenda (which will include the livestream link) for the 23 October meeting is scheduled to be online today, 21 October.

Full Council meeting Wednesday 23 October 2024

Venue: Tūhura, (Hutton theatre) Otago Museum, 416 Great King Street North, North Dunedin

9am – 5pm (*The proposed Land and Water Regional Plan will be considered from 1pm)