"Significant decision": Ashburton pushes ahead with stockwater exit
- Jonathan Leask
- Dec 19, 2025
- 3 min read
The oldest stockwater scheme in Mid Canterbury has become the first domino to fall in a “significant decision in the district’s history”.
The Ashburton District Council is working to exit the stockwater service delivery by June 30, 2027.
The council voted on Wednesday to close the Pudding Hill race network from its connections to Mt Harding Creek at Scarness gate and Drayton’s gate.
Councillors Jeanette Maxwell and Phill Everest voted against it with concerns about the timeframe for some landowners to secure an alternative supply.
The recommendation came from the Stockwater Transition Group, charged with managing the exit plan.
The Pudding Hill intake, opened in 1881, is the first of 17 intakes on the list for the exit plan.
The partial network closure will occur from September 30 next year.
Deputy mayor Richard Wilson, who chairs the stockwater transition group, said it was “a significant decision in our district's history".
“We are modernising the stock delivery system and marrying it to the current irrigation and other infrastructure we have.”
He described it as a chicken and egg scenario, and the council “have to make a start”.
Council assets manager Andy Guthrie said the partial closure means the Mt Harding Creek “will remain operational.”
The Pudding Hill intake will feed water down and into Mt Harding Creek, subsequently reducing the flow from the Methven auxiliary intake, which is next on the exit schedule.
Guthrie said the council isn’t consented to take water for ecological purposes, “so this is a way of maintaining our compliance”.
A crucial step in the process will be discussions with regional council Environment Canterbury on continuing to use the Pudding Hill intake for the environmental augmentation of Mt Harding Creek, with the key detail from the council stating that will be “by others”.
Chief executive Hamish Riach said the council resolved to exit the stockwater service and the question for those who still want it is “how are they going to get adequate supply?”
“We're trying to facilitate that process.”
Barrhill Chertsey Irrigation Ltd (BCI), a farmer-owned co-op that operates a piped irrigation scheme, is identified as the alternate provider, due to its infrastructure’s proximity to the 48 properties that require stockwater on the Pudding Hill network.
BCI chief executive Nick Daniels is supportive of “exploring the best transition from [council] services to alternatives” but raised concerns about community readiness.
“Is the community ready to pay upfront for the capital costs of new infrastructure where piped water would be required to deliver alternatives?”
He is also concerned about the council timetable for the prospective alternative providers and called for the process to be slowed down.
“We're not in a position to put together a business case to know if it's viable for us to present an alternative.”
As part of the decision, the council entered a Heads of Agreement with BCI, a non-binding acknowledgement of the company’s willingness to work on being an alternate provider.
Guthrie said BCI seen as the only alternative provider in this intake and “there is no plan B”.
Any suggestion there was a plan B could “influence people's decisions around taking plan A”, he said.
He warned against delaying for BCI’s decision as it could impact the schedule and send the wrong message.
“We were trying to create a signal that we're on our way. Adding a further delay to it could weaken that signal.”
A key focus around stockwater race closures is the impact on land drainage
Guthrie said there are complexities with changing them from stockwater to stormwater assets.
“We can’t just simply leave a race open and say it's for stormwater purposes.”
He said the preferred approach is for landowners to fill races in and then they can identify where any drainage issues occur.
“It would be far more effective to do that post closure than to try and predict it pre-closure.”
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