Council is carefully monitoring its fuel use and looking at fuel-saving ways to work as the war in the Middle East continues.

Chief Executive Hamish Riach said Council used about 20,000 litres of diesel a month, and about 6000 litres of petrol.

“Just over half of our fuel requirements are with Open Spaces, which looks after parks and reserves, cemeteries, cleans public toilets and empties rubbish bins from coastal Hakatere to Lake Heron in the high country. Staff cover a lot of kilometres and are currently doing a lot of mowing.

“Around town though, we make good use of our electric gators, which are small golf cart-sized vehicles most often seen around the CBD and in the Ashburton Domain.”

The current high cost of fuel is expected to impact budgets, especially the solid waste and kerbside collection service.

“Residents expect their rubbish and recycling to be picked up on a weekly basis and the higher cost of running the kerbside collection trucks will eventually be passed on,” Mr Riach said.

“We’ll be keeping an eye on those escalations, and looking to make savings where we can in other areas.”

Roading reseals and rehabilitation work could also be affected by higher bitumen prices, though that work is largely complete for the summer - the forward programme could be scaled back to meet budget. Similarly, water and wastewater pipe renewal work would be reduced, if required, to meet budget.

Mr Riach said fuel was also safely stored for used in Civil Defence emergencies, to run generators and other essential equipment.

“We’ve also asked staff asked not to travel unless absolutely necessary, especially air travel. We are encouraging online or virtual meetings, and ensuring our eight hybrid vehicles, which make up about half of our fleet, are used first.

“We’ll carefully monitor our fuel stocks and fuel use, and pay attention to the advice coming from Government. It’s important Council work continues as routinely as possible because our community relies on us.

“We learned good lessons during covid times and can run Council in a fuel-efficient way, and we’re proactively sharing information with other councils.”