NCBI Submission Trade Waste and Wasterwater Drainage Bylaw

Napier City Business Inc.

Trade Waste and Wastewater bylaw Submission May 2022

Napier City Business Inc. represents 450 businesses and over 2,500 staff. After consultation and communication with affected members, this submission is written on their behalf.

Napier City Businesses understands Napier City Council is proposing changes to the trade waste and wastewater bylaw, offering better environmental protection in the future. The proposed bylaw includes expanding the consenting coverage, including the Central Business District, resulting in a new administration manual and a user-pay charging model over a certain threshold.

While we support the proposed bylaw, we would like more commitment to long timeframes when implementing the bylaw, including a 5 to 6 months trial period for meters that will not be charged. This trial period will help educate our businesses on the trade-waste impact on the wastewater network and environment and the costs that arise when not processing liquid waste correctly. We also request the development of an educational manual on discharging wastewater responsibly to facilitate effective long-term change. 

As a reminder, Napier City Council increased commercial rates on average by 30% in the CBD in 2021/2022. While we appreciate land values have increased and rates need to reflect the property value, we cannot deny it has been a very challenging two years for the business financially. Especially for hospitality, introducing another charge will be unwelcomed right now; therefore, we recommend this charge not be enforced until 2023/2024. 

In summary:

We support the proposed bylaw with the following conditions:

5 to 6 month trial period running the meters free of charge reporting monthly chargeable amounts to affected businesses 

NCC develop an educational manual on discharging wastewater responsibly to facilitate effective long-term change 

The charging model is introduced in the 2023/2024 financial year

Pip Thompson

General Manager

Napier City Business Inc