The big city mayors’ Three Waters alternative proposal “might have rattled the cage”.
That’s the view of Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown, who says he still supports hitting pause on the controversial Three Waters reform and looking at another model than the one pursued by the Government.
That alternative could be that proposed by the other Mayor Brown.
That’s Auckland’s Wayne Brown who, when joined by Christchurch’s Phil Mauger, floated a new proposal that maintained key aspects of the Government’s existing plan but retained local ownership and control.
They propose that the control and ownership of three waters infrastructure would remain with local councils, as it is now, but under the government’s national water regulator, Taumata Arowai.
Mauger and Brown said that ensured the “fundamentally most important part of the reform” remains, which is better regulation of water.
Ashburton’s Brown believes it may demand more attention from the Government because he said it was similar to one pitched by the Communities for Local Democracy, which is an alliance of 30 councils opposing the current reform structure.
The previous Ashburton council was against the reforms in their current form and Brown will be canvassing the new council’s position and its continued membership in C4Ld at the November 23 meeting.
Before then, Brown is waiting to see the select committee report on the Water Services Entities Bill, which was expected to be released on Friday, November 11 to see if anything had been changed.

• By Jonathan Leask