Southland shows resilience during challenging year

The 2020/21 year continued to be challenging for Environment Southland, impacting the Council’s finances and work programmes.

Environment Southland’s Operational Performance and Audit Committee reviewed and amended the draft annual report on Wednesday, 17 November. The draft report is expected to be adopted by the full Council on Wednesday, 24 November.

Environment Southland finished the year with a reported surplus of $3.274m. However, much of the surplus is made up of Government funds tagged for economic recovery projects that cannot be used for other work. Day-to-day operating expenses remained at a $1.2 million deficit, which means that everyday expenses were greater than everyday income.

In line with Long-term Plan commitments, the Council achieved significant cost savings across the organisation of $2.1m, which resulted in a lower operating deficit than forecast. The Council achieved 50% of its targets in this financial year.

Chairman Nicol Horrell said the annual report was an opportunity to reflect on the past year’s challenges and opportunities.

“Our community has demonstrated tremendous resilience in spite of these challenges,” Chairman Horrell said.

“We’re making the most of the opportunities presented through this adversity, like funding through the Government’s economic recovery package. This has meant we were able to start planning for, and start work on, upgrading our flood protection schemes in the Waiau, Mataura and Oreti river catchments.

“We’ve also managed to get a range of Jobs for Nature funded biosecurity projects underway, particularly in Fiordland, where the projects are providing employment opportunities for those impacted by the pandemic.”

The Council continues to face challenges with the loss of our cruise ship income and uncertain investment income, and made tough decisions to take on debt and increase rates in the Long-term Plan process.

“The decisions we made in the Long-term Plan process were done with a firm plan to move us into a financially prudent position,” Chairman Horrell said.

“The plan is well mapped out to repay debt and ensure our everyday income meets our everyday costs.”