The canning of its tourism trust and other one-off cash adjustments has led to the Mackenzie District Council recording a $590,000 loss for the last financial year.

The council's annual report, adopted this week, revealed that operating expenditure was $7.43 million, while operating revenue was $10.9m. However, finance manager Paul Morris said the council ran an operating deficit of $590,000, due to a number of one-off cash adjustments.

Major components of this included the $233,000 impairment of the loan to the (now disbanded) Mackenzie Tourism and Development Trust, and $2.55m for the book value of the Lake Tekapo campsite, after it was sold last year, he said.

The council sold the camping ground for about $1.85m.

"We do not budget for these non-cash adjustments, therefore to compare budget to actual you need to eliminate them from the actual results," Mr Morris said.

Excluding the one-off adjustments, the operating surplus was about $2.8m for the year, well above what it anticipated.

"The council remains in a very strong position for the upcoming year," Mr Morris said.

The annual report also noted that a restructuring of the district's solid waste portfolio led to five redundancies. Last year, the council decided to contract its kerbside collection service to Envirowaste.

Mr Morris said $2.9m of capital works were undertaken in the past financial year, about half of that on roading.

The council's equity also remained relatively stable at $183.3m.

Mayor Claire Barlow said it had been a busy year for the council.

Some of the "big-ticket" items included the building of new tennis courts for Tekapo, a contract let for enhanced treatment of Tekapo's water supply and the successful rezoning of Twizel through Plan Change 15.

Meanwhile, Mr Morris said the council hoped to start water upgrades in Twizel shortly. Repairs to the roading network due to this year's July and August floods could cost up to $1m, with the New Zealand Transport Agency subsidising the bulk of the cost.

Audit NZ director Julian Tann said he was pleased with how smoothly the annual report's audit went.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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