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From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A nearly $300,000 resilience project to ensure the West Coast is strategically connected in the event of a full-scale civil defence emergency is ramping up.
West Coast Emergency Management group manager Claire Brown told the West Coast Emergency … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A nearly $300,000 resilience project to ensure the West Coast is strategically connected in the event of a full-scale civil defence emergency is ramping up.
West Coast Emergency Management group manager Claire Brown told the West Coast Emergency Management Joint Committee this week substantial work has progressed around the fuel aspect of the wider resilience project, which also aims to set up an alternative communication project.
The project was funded by NEMA earlier in the year.
Brown said they were at the stage of developing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with up to 30 of the region's fuel stations to ensure their strategic role in any future event.
This included ensuring petrol stations had access to a back up power supply "and an understanding of Civil Defence and its role".
This was to enable the utilisation of critical fuel supplies in an emergency.
Brown said the intended memorandum was a "unique" cross-sector arrangement, the first of its kind in the country.
It would include ensuring fuel stations had the appropriate wiring in place in order to hook up to portable generators for power supply, or had accessed provision through the resilience fund for a generator.
"I think we have identified this as a key issue for us accessing fuel."
However, that was only one element of the broader project, which has a two year rollout, Brown said.
More broadly, a South Island group had been initiated to collaborate in the design of a high frequency radio network.
Meanwhile, the West Coast councils' chief executives group had endorsed progression of two funding proposal topics for next year's NEMA funding round.
These were a 'kit me' household preparedness web based resource, as part of a national rollout, and alternate emergency operations centre/emergency control centre emergency equipment cache - with early discussion with the region's runanga regarding the location of emergency equipment at marae.
This was due to be submitted by early next year.
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From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The draft Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) has drawn over 300 public submissions so far.
Submissions close at 5pm on Friday.
The draft plan -- which combines the Grey, Westland and Buller district plans - was publicly notified in July.
… View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The draft Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) has drawn over 300 public submissions so far.
Submissions close at 5pm on Friday.
The draft plan -- which combines the Grey, Westland and Buller district plans - was publicly notified in July.
Hearings are expected to be under way by mid-2023.
Plan committee chairperson Rex Williams said the level of submissions was as expected and indicated "a good level of interest".
Planning staff had also fielded a lot of calls from the public. The impact of the plan on individual properties was one thing people had clarified in discussions with staff.
"Submissions range across everything really," Williams said.
Half appeared to be around property zoning and the remainder reflected questions on other zoning aspects of the draft.
For some, the TTPP had been an introduction to the planning process.
He said there had been "one or two mistakes" in the mapping and there was opportunity through the plan committee's own submission to flag anything that needed clarifying.
"Obviously we're leaning over backwards to resolve anything like that."
Williams said some late submissions would be accepted "in exceptional circumstances".
While the deadline for submissions is tomorrow - after already being extended twice - late submissions could be accepted for up to a week later "however they have to be late for a reason".
Exceptional circumstances would include delays because people had been out of the country, had not received the mailout notification, or involved timing issues for community organisations wishing to make a collective submission, he said.
Drafting of the new plan began in 2019 after the Local Government Commission directed the West Coast Regional Council to oversee the process of combining the three plans.
The TTPP Committee was formed as a result of that and is made up of representatives of the four councils and West Coast iwi.
*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
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From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Urgent moves were made to divert water away from the old Franz Josef rubbish dump after residents expressed concern the Waiho River could cut through as floodwaters started to rise.
Amidst the stormy weather on Wednesday, authorities were … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Urgent moves were made to divert water away from the old Franz Josef rubbish dump after residents expressed concern the Waiho River could cut through as floodwaters started to rise.
Amidst the stormy weather on Wednesday, authorities were actively monitoring West Coast rivers in case of possible flooding but by Thursday morning the worst had passed without any significant issues in the region.
There had been some “significant” hourly rainfall totals on Wednesday, particularly in the Westland ranges, West Coast Emergency Management Group director Claire Brown said.
West Coast Regional Council staff were monitoring rivers, especially the Waiho, and on Wednesday engineering staff decided to act on temporary protection of a vulnerable floodwall between Canavans Knob and Rata Knoll, downstream of the township.
The bank protects the closed rubbish dump from the river and was the subject of a heated discussion between council engineering staff and Waiho Flat residents.
Waiho Flat farmer Richard Molloy said the risk on Wednesday was “extremely severe”, as the stopbank had already been compromised by a flood in April “and then left” by the council.
This week’s weather only exacerbated the risk as the river was the highest it had been for some time, with risk of the main channel turning towards the undermined protection bank, he said.
“We’ve got a real bad situation down here, they’ve done nothing with this bank. The risk is extremely severe.”
He claimed council staff at the site told landowners it was “too late” to do anything, but he believed a decent digger could do a lot, even at that late stage.
“Of course you can turn the river – it’s not the main body of the river, but a significant channel.”
It appears the council listened before releasing a press statement later in the day.
“Some short-term protection by a local contractor has been arranged for later this afternoon to ease some of the pressure in a localised area and provide assurance to the community,” acting chief executive Rachel Vaughan said on Wednesday.
“This is a temporary fix and long-term solutions for the Waiho continue to be investigated.”
Meanwhile, plans for flood protection work elsewhere on the West Coast are continuing to progress.
A $2.5 million project to lift the height of the existing Greymouth floodwalls will be under way towards the end of March.
The added height would allow the wall to cope with an even more extreme event than the big twin floods of 1988 that prompted construction of the floodwall
The West Coast Regional Council decided to upgrade much of the existing wall structure to a new 50-year flood level, with concrete work to be upgraded to a 150-year flood level.
Infrastructure project leader Scott Hoare said the project had been split into five stages.
Overall, the walls on both sides of the Grey River and in the suburbs of Cobden and Blaketown would be raised by up to half a metre in most places. They would also be widened by just over 1m to accommodate the extra height.
It had to go through design and budget before being tendered.
Addressing the weak point in the Hokitika River stopbank near Westland Milk Products will also be prioritised in the first stage of a proposed project to top up the flood defences from Kaniere to the river mouth.
Just before last month's local election, now retired Westland mayor Bruce Smith warned the weak point in the bank, just above the dairy factory, should be urgently addressed by the regional council to avoid “litigation flying”.
Smith also warned both councils would want to avoid being sued, as happened after the Waiho (Waiau) River overtopped the stopbank at Franz Josef in 2016 and flooded Scenic Circle's old THC Hotel.
Council infrastructure projects leader Scott Hoare said they were now reconsidering the order of the planned Hokitika protection works.
The council had to consider the “mobilisation and demobilisation” costs of engaging a contractor specifically for a temporary fix as opposed to getting on with the permanent improvement and keep to the budget, he said.
“It does add extra costs when you split it up.”
In Westport, a business case for a $56 million flood protection scheme has yet to be seen by Cabinet.
The town has just endured another storm watch in the past 24 hours – with residents again on tenterhooks, spurring “bloody panic”.
Snodgrass Rd resident Paul Reynolds said people were still struggling after the 2021 flood, which left a $100m trail of destruction in its wake.
“We can't get on with life because we've got a $100m threat every time we've got heavy rain,” Reynolds said.
Regional council chief executive Heather Mabin told councillors the Department of Internal Affairs had advised there had been a delay in getting the business case to Cabinet. The full proposal was submitted with the Government in June.
Associate Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty said the Westport case was “under active consideration”.
“Every time we get these flood events, as we have just had, there's bloody panic at Westport,” regional council chairperson Allan Birchfield said.
“Really, [the Government] need to get on with it. The people up there can't live like this – a constant state of emergency every time it rains.”
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There's a fine line between being helpful and minding your own business.
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A South Westland member of the West Coast Conservation Board says possums should be treated as a "resource" with a financial incentive to entice hunters to help contain numbers of the pest.
At the West Coast Conservation Board in Karamea… View moreBy local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A South Westland member of the West Coast Conservation Board says possums should be treated as a "resource" with a financial incentive to entice hunters to help contain numbers of the pest.
At the West Coast Conservation Board in Karamea during a discussion about the Department of Conservation's national predator management programme, board chairperson Dr Mike Legge of Charleston noted the effectiveness of aerial 1080 poison in the management of possums.
"It is the most effective poison - animals die quickly. In the last two to three years I haven't seen one possum roadkill," Legge said.
Ngāi Tahu board member Rob Wilson, a Harihari dairy farmer, said it was a shame that culled possums were going to waste.
"When they were under control down our way was when there was a financial incentive [for trapping]," Wilson said.
Prior to the current method of using 1080, commercial operations "which didn't cost the taxpayer," were a way of benefiting the local economy while controlling the spread of possums.
"I see it as a resource. There's a resource that is going to waste that maybe we can utilise," Wilson said.
Recovery of possum skins and fur has been a longstanding practice on the West Coast, with the 'wool' highly sought after for a variety of uses including blending with other materials to make warm clothing.
DOC Western South Island operations director Mark Davies said the control of possums was "a very complex matter".
"We'd all like to see the commercial industry reintstated."
However, the department also had to balance other competing interests in dealing with pest species, including the farmed venison sector which did not want to see DOC "subsidise" the commercial recovery of feral deer.
Davies said the current approach to control was eventually to totally eradicate.
"The vision is Predator Free 2050... but we haven't got a silver bullet yet."
*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Over 100 hundred submissions have come in so far for the proposed Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP).
The submission close off date for the plan was recently extended again, until 5pm on November 11.
Plan project leader Jo Armstrong, of the West … View moreBy local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Over 100 hundred submissions have come in so far for the proposed Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP).
The submission close off date for the plan was recently extended again, until 5pm on November 11.
Plan project leader Jo Armstrong, of the West Coast Regional Council, said a large proportion of the more than 100 submitters included large submissions covering broad aspects of the proposed plan. They were not just confined to individuals talking about one point.
"People have expressed gratitude for the extension time," Armstrong said.
A wide variety of subjects had been covered in submissions so far.
This included requests for properties to be re-zoned - mainly in relation to rural/urban boundary issues.
"There's always a number of those sorts of things that come through, which is fine."
Just over 50% of the submissions to date had been via the on-line submission option.
The remaining submitters had submitted via traditional paper-based submissions, Armstrong said.
"It's important we have both, and no-one seems to be having difficulty filling in a form or typing up an on-line submission."
The proposed plan will eventually replace the individual Westland, Grey and Buller district plans.
Aspects of the proposed TTPP are already legally binding with affected property owners first notified by letter after the plan was formally notified on July 21.
The latest submissions extension came after a glitch in sending out new letters to all affected property owners, when some were initially incorrectly identified as having sites and areas of significance to Māori.
This was attributed to technical problems in the mapping system.
The TTPP only has immediate legal effect over some properties if they have identified Sites and Areas of significance to Māori, Historic Heritage, Ecosystems and Indigenous Biodiversity, Natural Character the Margins of water, Activities on the Surface of Water, and Designations.
Armstrong said they were not anticipating any other issue which might warrant a further submission period extension.
Once submissions closed off on November 11, they would be collated by staff for a formal submissions summary, anticipated to be tabled to the committee in late February.
If the committee approved the summary there would be further submissions period - but only for those who had already made a submission by November 11.
From there, formal hearings were expected to begin about the middle of next year.
*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
With spring in the air, the price of veggies on the rise and Christmas around the corner there has never been a better time to get gardening!
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Understanding the property market - Presented by Shane Cortese on Monday 14 November, 3:30pm.
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Downsizing your way to a richer, happier life - Presented by Peter Walsh on Wednesday 16 November, 3:30pm.
These informative presentations are not to be missed, to find out more or to register click below.
These amazing community gardeners are finalists for our 2022 Ryman Healthcare Gardener of the Year. Read about their great work (and the other four finalists), and vote for your favourite!
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