An open letter from Mayor Len to our Coromandel communities

Published on 09 February 2023

Above: Mayor Len and Councillor John Morrissey visited local businesses at Coromandel town this week. Pictured here with Mike at The Pepper Tree Restaurant and Bar

“The last few weeks have been extremely trying for all of the people in our communities trying to get back on their feet after what must seem like an endless trail of events one after another. They have tested our resources severely – not just our Council and our people, but also our business owners and operators.

As Mayor, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t hear from businesspeople struggling for answers. Some have more capacity and resource for resilience than others. Anybody investing in a new business of starting out within the last three years will be feeling the pain. Two years of COVID, followed by a season of storms, cyclones, weather events, road closures are taking a toll.

Those who have been established for longer might have experienced the challenges that the Coromandel can throw at businesspeople, travellers, visitors and tourists over a longer period. Some I’ve spoken to are more philosophical. They have weathered events like these before. Some have developed strategies for riding it out, but it’s still tough for every single business out there. Jobs and livelihoods are on the line in many cases.

Everyone I have spoken to, however, agrees that the events of the last few weeks present conditions and obstacles haven’t been seen for many decades The 1.55m of rainfall since the beginning of January has broken all records.

Our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) team have been on duty through every long weekend, night and day, since the beginning of January. Our EOC is staffed by the same people who work their day jobs in Council. They hang up their jackets, put on a hi-vis vest and go downstairs to help our communities through these events.

In the past we have had short burst storms and cyclones, and our teams have become very experienced at managing their way efficiently and safely through these events. This depth of experience has saved us in more ways than one, and we have avoided some of the confusion seen in other areas, simply because we do it so often, we know the ropes.

This year has been different. At the time of writing this, our EOC team have been on duty for five weeks straight and with the extension of the district-wide State of Emergency for the entire district another seven days, as another severe weather event heads our way, means there won’t be any respite for another week at least.

In a full briefing of the people working on these events there can be up to 65 people involved, coordinating services and crews involving hundreds of people over the 2,207m2 of roads, rivers, mountains, and coastline that makes up our district. Every one of the people involved in these teams has homes, jobs and whanau in our district. They are our friends and neighbours.

Our contractors and roading crews have been working non-stop clearing literally hundreds of slips, road drop-outs, fallen trees and flood events and keeping the roads open. It can be heart-breaking work, with crews often clearing a slip only to find a new one appearing soon after. And still, they keep smiling.

For the first time ever since I came to the Coromandel, I am seeing signs at the end of driveways saying “Thank you” to our clean-up crews. It means a lot to them, seeing those messages.

For our staff, our volunteers, our Fire and Emergency teams, our welfare teams and everybody else who is contributing to this effort, thank you and thank you again. The recent storms have hit some parts of the country very hard. People in Auckland have lost their homes and all their belongings. Some have lost their lives. Our hearts go out to them, and while things have been tough on the Coromandel, and continue to be challenging, for our people, our communities and our Emergency Management teams have done a great job and will continue to do so in the coming week. We’re really good at supporting each other.

It’s clear to everyone that our long-term roading resilience is in serious need of investment. I first wrote to the Prime Minister’s office three weeks ago, in the middle of Cyclone Hale. This was followed by a visit from the Minister for Emergency Management and a follow up letter to his office, which was also addressed to the Ministers of Transport, Roading and Health. The list of requests for assistance is long, more than three pages.

We cannot fund these requirements ourselves. Our emergency roading fund was exhausted last year from that seasons’ storm events. Our Council now need to decide how to fund the emergency roading fund for our Annual Plan (which covers 1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024) and financial year, and what level of cost that is likely to impose on ratepayers.

The section of SH25A (managed by NZTA/Waka Kotahi) that has disappeared into the valley was built in the mid 1960’s. Before that, there was only the Thames Coast Road and the South Eastern access. The tourism and business economies that have been built up since then have been developed in no small part based on that road.

It provided a means for not just for visitors and holidaymakers, but workers, health and education professionals, construction and services to access the Eastern communities of Whangamatā, Tairua, Whitianga and beyond within a reasonable time. Tourists and holidaymakers can sometimes afford a little more time to enjoy the drive. For works, it’s a different reality.

With this impending cyclone, we still face challenges in parts of the north-western quadrant with a debris dam in the Kōpūtauākī settlement. The sluicing with monsoon buckets two days ago has helped this situation and will be actively monitored and managed.

For the business community, we are exploring every possible avenue to secure any assistance and relief that is available. The best remedy as we all know will be a break in the weather, solid bookings for the rest of the summer period and a steady flow of customers who have some confidence that they can visit the Coromandel. Come visit, spend money have a great holiday and go home safe, happy and contented.

Sadly, our Council is not in a position to guarantee that can happen. We too are at the mercy of the weather and its effects, whatever it brings, however we are working as hard and fast as we can to put strategies in place ready to get us going again.

We have met with our Destination Management Organisation, Destination Hauraki Coromandel (DHC) to urgently put in place whatever programmes we can which might get the wheels turning again.

We see an opportunity to encourage visitors to “enjoy the ride”, do the Coromandel loop, and make the most of everything the Coromandel has to offer.

We will support and work with DHC to seek additional funding for these promotions. This work has already started.

We are starting work with professionals and experts to support and guide us when we’re able to move out of Emergency mode through Transition and Recovery, These are people with direct experience in helping communities through similar events.

We are keeping all of business and community stakeholders updated as we go. It will take a team effort, and it will require all of us supporting each other, sharing ideas and working together.

We are either organising or participating in meetings organised by other agencies. We know there will be a mix of community and public meetings as well as planning sessions with Business Associations. One-on-one discussions and phone calls with individual businesspeople have already started. This will take cooperation on multiple levels, using every tool at our disposal.

I am reaching out to elected representatives in each part of the district to assist with liaison between our business associations and our councillors and community boards. We have never done this on anything like this scale before, so it will take, above all, patience and understanding on the part of all of us while we try to get it right.

It is times like this that our communities and our spirit of resilience really shines.

I am immensely proud of the people of Thames-Coromandel for stepping up at this difficult time.

Thank you to all of you and let’s keep looking after each other.

Below: State High 25A Kōpū-Hikuai is closed for the foreseeable future due to an extensive dropout