160 days ago

Stressed landowners on tenterhooks for Budget confirmation

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

Flood-stricken landowners and the West Coast Regional Council are on tenterhooks on the promise of new funding for Franz Josef under $400m of new protection money announced in the Budget.

The council's Waiho River south and north banks project has been named as "ready for" the first tranche of the Regional Infrastructure Fund initial allocation in 2024-25.

However, whether the council gets the $10m it has been seeking in the past year in ongoing discussions with Government officials is not yet clear.

Council chief executive Darryl Lew initially said on Friday a $6m allocation under the new fund was confirmed.

However, staff later contacted LDR and said they "might have jumped the gun".

Minister Shane Jones' office said they did not know the individual project details and were unable to confirm the West Coast project allocation beyond Thursday's sweeping budget statement.

Lew said he understood council was to get $6m from the fund, predicated on a 40% ($4m) contribution from the landowners across the Franz Josef Special Joint Rating District.

He said bolstering the existing protection on the Waiho River south side and installing a flood forecasting and warning system was the primary focus of their $10m scheme.

A portion would also add protection for the north bank Franz Josef sewage ponds site - pending a district council decision to move the ponds, Lew said.

The council assured Waiho River ratepayers in April it was still working to secure the release of $8.7m of money previously allocated for the area's flood protection.

The $8.7m was meant to be spent on fixing stop banks on the south side of the river at Waiho Flat after announcement of a broader $24m scheme for the area in 2020.

Subsequently the council announced its 10-year Waiho River Management Strategy in October last year after the previous Government asked for a more detailed case including retreat from the south bank.

Under the strategy, the council proposes better flood warning and protection initially before a retreat from the area in about 10 years.

Lew said the $8.7m had now "gone" and money under the Regional Infrastructure Fund was "new money".

"It is predicated on a 60/40 split," he said.

"The total budget will be $10m of which 40% has to be recovered locally."

He anticipated a special meeting of the joint committee being called first to test "their commitment" to co-funding.

Waiho Flat ratepayers spokesman Dale Straight said stressed landowners on the south bank were hanging for some good news - particularly in the wake of the October announcement.

"There's people there pretty bloody stressed and worried," he said.

If the new funding "comes to pass" then it would be a major boost.

"It's been a pigs ear in the way it's been handled," he said.

"It's got to be good news for the south side, and certainly some of the farms further down the valley that are not really covered by any protection at all."

However, Straight said ratepayers may not feel able to financially commit to co-funding given the drawn out process they had endured for years.

"We had that nearly $8.7m promised four years ago that then got 'unpromised'. This may go someway to replace that I suppose."

Straight said the promise of "money for nothing" still had a price which might be "a big noose around our necks".

"There's a bit of water to go under the bridge yet."

Lew said the new money was aligned with the first two prongs of the 10-year Waiho River Management Strategy.

That was to immediately bolster civil defence and flood warning for the people living there, and to bolster the existing protection banks.

It would still be to "buy time" before an eventual staged retreat from the river's south bank, as announced in October.

More messages from your neighbours
1 day ago

Poll: Is it rude to talk on the phone on a bus?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Buses can be a relaxing way to get home if you have a seat and enough space. However, it can be off-putting when someone is taking a phone call next to you.

Do you think it's inconsiderate for people to have lengthy phone calls on a bus? Vote in the poll, and add your comments below.

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Is it rude to talk on the phone on a bus?
  • 64% Yes
    64% Complete
  • 33.4% No
    33.4% Complete
  • 2.5% Other - I'll share below
    2.5% Complete
1582 votes
14 hours ago

Become an SPCA Foster Hero!

The Team from SPCA Westport - Centre & Op Shop

Kitten season has arrived, and over the next six months, over 8,000 cats and kittens will come into SPCA’s care. Please help us give these babies the best start in life and sign up to be a foster parent today! It's not just cats and kittens - we are also urgently seeking foster homes for dogs and small animals.

Fostering saves lives and helps these tiny babies grow into healthy, well-adjusted adults, ready for adoption. We cover all training and costs. All you need is time and love to spare!

Sign up today and save a life!

19 hours ago

Horse rider pleads for support to keep them safe on roads

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

A nationwide campaign to have horse-riders officially recognised as vulnerable road users has been offered supported by the West Coast’s Regional Transport committee.

The committee heard a presentation this month from equestrian safety advocate Julia McLean, who recently took a petition to Parliament on behalf of riding associations across the country.

The petition, signed by close to 9000 people, asks the government to recognise the vulnerability of horse riders in transport legislation.

“Currently we sit in the ‘other road user’ category and that gives no benefits whatsoever and most critically we are not included in education or road safety-messaging,” McLean said.

Horse-riders were continually dealing with reckless and dangerous behaviour by motorists, she told the committee.

“We get reports from our rider groups of horses being killed: there was one in Reefton, and another in Ruatoki; just two weeks ago a horse was hit and killed by a truck and the rider was taken to hospital."

Riders were also put at risk by aggressive drivers tooting their horns, winding down their windows and shouting, and passing at speed and too closely, she told the committee.

But unlike accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, such incidents involving horses were not captured in the statistics.

When she had asked NZTA for data, said said all it could tell her was that it had issued 13 infringements in 13 years, for failing to take care around a ridden animal or stock.

“When someone comes so close they touch your stirrup, or they hoot their horn as they go past ... it’s the abuse - it’s everywhere."

In a case down south, a truck driver refused to slow down despite hand signals and the rider fell off just in front of him, she said.

She had asked the road safety director for NZ Police to look at providing a ‘tick-box’ for horse-riders in incident reports, Ms McLean said.

“It’s a small, low-cost measure that would allow us to have some proper data, an informed understanding of what’s happening out there on the roads, and in turn some targeted road safety messaging.”

She was motivated to become a safety advocate by her own experience at the age of 25, when she fractured her skull in a near-fatal riding accident on a Kaiapoi road.

“I lost all memory of my childhood; my sense of taste and smell is gone forever. I was in a coma for week, I lost my career and it’s taken me 16 years to fully recover,” she told LDR.

Her accident had not been caused by a car: her horse had shied and thrown her when a piece of paper on the verge moved suddenly in the wind.

But the incident was a grim reminder of what could happen if a horse were startled, she said.

The UK and Australia had recently changed their road codes to give drivers explicit instructions on passing horses.

“It needs to be explicit. We can’t assume people just get it anymore. Common sense is not a thing. We actually have to tell people what we require, to pass a horse wide and slow - wide is two metres.”

A total of 37 organisations were now endorsing her campaign, including police, trucking companies, pony clubs and 10 other regional councils, McLean told the committee.

Transport Committee chairperson Peter Ewen was supportive of Ms McLeans safety campaign.

“In rural New Zealand we have a lot of narrow roads, and we do have riders on them – I would like to think that courtesy is given to those riders."

Regional council chairperson Peter Haddock said he sympathised with the cause but had reservations about riders on state highways.

“I would encourage it on low volume council roads but would struggle to support riding on highways where you’ve got traffic following closely behind.

“It’s difficult to find you suddenly have a horse in front of you and slowly pass it and go from 100kphs to 10kphs. It’s a dangerous situation."

McLean said horse riders did not want to ride on highways, and accidents were happening on 50kph local roads.

She appealed to West Coast mayors and chairs present to consider horse riders when they built shared pathways like cycle trails.

“We don’t need a hard surface, just a bit of dirt or grass at the side.”

The Transport Committee agreed to draft a letter to the national transport authorities, endorsing McLean’s safety campaign but stating its reservations about horses on highways.

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