Welcome to the weekly wrap-up of our latest Council project news, important dates and information about what's happening in our district.
Thanks from Mayor Len
I want to pass on my gratitude and thanks to Council staff, contractors, emergency services, whānau and volunteers, along with everyone else involved in managing what has been an intense weather week with Ex-Cyclone Hale hitting the Coromandel.
Yesterday our Chief Executive Aileen Lawrie and Garry Towler our Emergency Management Lead and other staff travelled along our eastern seaboard and did rapid assessments of the damage.
I spent the week in Thames working with the team on managing this event, and returned to Whitianga yesterday where I met with members of the Mercury Bay Boating Club and inspected other parts of the foreshore. The damage is extensive and will come with significant costs.
I’ve written to Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty seeking financial assistance from the government, as we need to lessen the impact on ratepayers as much as possible. As an example, we had a rain event in November last year that cost the district just over $1 million in repairs.
Given that Hale has been classified as a one in 20-year event, this will have a much larger financial impact.
As well as managing this weather event from an operational perspective, it’s also generated a lot of media attention and social media comment – some of the latter has been pretty negative and not based on facts. Some of those opinions have been that Council isn’t acting fast enough to “get things done”, like putting in hard structures immediately to protect some parts of our coast. While we appreciate that people would like us to repair everything straightaway, it’s not always that simple.
Here some facts:
- The priority in extreme weather events is protecting public utilities, hospitals, schools and lives.
- Emergency works provisions under the RMA only apply for public works and public utilities.
- Putting in hard structures comes with significant costs, and our communities need to be consulted about how those structures will be paid for. We can’t do this alone and rely on rates. We need regional and central government support – both financial and with planning and consenting.
- Installing hard structures can come with serious implications, such as loss of beach area and end scouring which affects other sensitive parts of the coastline. These effects have to be carefully considered, and our communities have to be consulted before such serious steps are taken.
- Our Shoreline Management Pathways tcdc.govt.nz/smp has been a three-year project where we’ve worked with communities to identify vulnerable parts of our coast and how our communities want these areas to be managed – hard or soft structures, managed retreat or do nothing. When certain “triggers” happen along parts of the coast that's when implementation will occur.
- In the case of the Mercury Bay Boat Club, (a private building on land leased from Council), we have been working for some time, and will continue to work proactively with the Club - to re-site the building.
- When our local roads and state highways are closed for several days, there may be areas that can’t have their rubbish collected because the trucks just can’t get through. Please be patient and know it will get collected.
Getting things done isn’t easy. What I can say is that we’ll continue to work with agencies and our communities so that the best possible use of our resources is made – and also that I am here to listen to you. Email me len.salt@tcdc.govt.nz
Hale leaves long tail of aftermath in our district
Ex-Cyclone Hale has left significant damage along the East coast, especially between Cooks Beach and Matarangi.