Murray de Lues, Co Author: Steve Burton Taurange District Council (New Zealand) When the dust settled from the Local Authority reorganisation in November 1988 where approximately 230 Councils were amalgamated into 75, it was realised that many of the staff made redundant, were the ones who knew a great deal about what was where, in the community, with regards to infrastructure. Council's were required to create LATE's (Local Authority Trading Enterprise) and removal of in-house design staff and outside workforces with respect to Transit requirements for roading. This was later extended to other areas of infrastructure services. The positive side of this exercise was to force engineers into taking a serious long-term look at the assets they managed. It became very apparent that new practices were required when it came to asset management. Considerable pressure for comprehensive asset management was being driven by central government with the Audit Department taking a leading role along with the Society of Accountants. Download the complete story as a Word Document BACK TO