Keep calm and carry on - that is always a good line to take after a general election that results in a change of government.

No matter who is in power, our residents expect clean, safe water when they turn on a tap, and that when they flush their toilets the waste is properly managed without harm to the environment.

These core operations were discussed by Council recently at one of our regular Activity Briefings - which are an opportunity for the different Council teams to present their work and answer any questions that Councillors might have.

There was a lot of talk about the amount of road works and pipe renewal projects that are going on around Ashburton and the wider district.

This is Council's bread and butter and it is never finished. We are continually renewing our drinking water and wastewater pipes, and planning for new areas or for new plant to deliver a better service.

In the last briefing papers, I counted nine three waters projects (from building a new membrane water treatment plant at Mt Somers, to relining wastewater pipes in Hampstead). I also counted 29 other three waters projects, many related to upgrading existing water treatment plants, detecting leaks, and investigating extensions to our various networks.

In the drinking water network, the current focus is to replace old asbestos cement pipes and older polyethylene pipes, and the ones we are taking out have an average age of just over 56 years.

The wastewater pipes that we are replacing have an average age of 82 years. These old pipes are glazed earthenware and asbestos cement pipes, materials not used since the 1980 - technology and materials have changed for the better over time.

A lot of the work is about pre-empting failures and we prioritise areas where we know poor materials have been used in the past or where there is a record of bursts or leaking in pipes.

We work with other organisations and have regular coordination planning meetings with our own roading team, Chorus, EA Networks and Waka Kotahi to try and minimise clashes, in essence sharing trenches to avoid digging up roads more than once.

Also in the briefing papers were details about the millions of dollars already spent on roading maintenance and renewals this financial year so far.

Routine maintenance and repairs following the heavy rain event are main areas of work, and now that the weather is warmer you will see more rehab on the sealed network too.