Category: LDR

Source: Radio New Zealand

About 100 people crowded into the Whakatāne District Council chambers on Wednesday in a show of support for the restoration of Ōhope Beach’s iconic West End walkway.

A second meeting room with video and audio links to the chambers was opened to accommodate supporters of Austin Oliver and Angus Robson’s proposal to allow volunteers to restore the track.

Four years after the section of Ngā Tapuwae o Toi walkway between Otarawairere Bay and, West End, Ōhope, was closed by slips, the track around a steep, rocky point providing one of two access points to the secluded Otarawairere Bay remains closed.

Mr Oliver and Mr Robson told Local Democracy Reporting they had been in communication with the council for about a year with their proposal, which they estimated to cost about a tenth of the $451,000 the council has been allocated through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Tourism Infrastructure Fund for the track’s repair.

“What we are getting is officers of the council saying volunteers can’t do it because of health and safety,” Mr Robson said.

They asked the council not to allow liability fears to be a handbrake to community projects.

“Angus and I have been blown away by the amount of support we have received from the community,” Mr Oliver said.

“We wish to work with the council to resolve this issue in a safe and practical manner.”

Mr Robson said the council’s concerns had set him off into a “major deep dive” into why community projects throughout New Zealand were being knocked back on health and safety grounds.

“What I have learnt is that if we follow health and safety protocols there’s no more risk to the council than if contractors did the work. We should be encouraged to do it because the rates saving is so huge and the community engagement is so positive.”

Rangitaiki ward councillor Gavin Dennis agreed community groups should be partnering with council to improve the district, but referenced the charges laid against helicopter pilot Mark Law by WorkSafe after he flew out to Whakaari during the 2019 eruption to rescue people on the island.

“I agree with you about what it says here in the law that you can’t eliminate all risks, but it wont stop WorkSafe going after you like a rabid dog, will it?”

Mr Robson had spoken at length to Worksafe and some of the country’s top health and safety lawyers over the past few weeks.

“I think everyone learnt something from the Whakaari [eruption], including WorkSafe.

“I doubt very much that you will ever see a shotgun approach like you saw there.”

Mr Robson said he had spoken to people from the Department of Conservation, which had managed to navigate the use of volunteers to maintain its tracks when it could no longer afford to carry out the work itself.

“So there’s no reason our council shouldn’t navigate it as well.”

He presented a petition yesterday signed by 500 people supporting their proposal.

“Not because we could only get 500 people, but because they were the first 500 people we approached. So far we have received almost 100 percent community support.”

Many of those people had ticked a box on the petition offering help with the project, whether it was through giving money, physically helping or providing expertise.

“We’ve got all the skills and all the money and all the will in the world.”

Mr Oliver acknowledged Ngāti Awa as tangata whenua and Ngāti Hokopu as mana whenua of the area during his presentation.

Māori ward councillor Toni Boynton also acknowledged the the area where the track is located, Kāpū te Rangi, as being of great significance to Māori as “the site of the ancient pa of Toi … one of the cradles of Māori civilisation”.

Mayor Nandor Tanczos said the council would make a decision in the new year when it had engineering reports and various associated reports presented to council.

“Those reports will then be released to the public.”

The council’s community experience general manager Alexandra Pickles said it had not ruled out involvement from volunteers in reinstating the walkway. However, the work involved complex landslip remediation in a high-risk area and the council had health and safety obligations to ensure any work was done properly and safely, regardless of whether it is carried out by contractors or volunteers.

“If volunteers wish to be considered as part of the solution, they will need to go through the standard procurement process alongside other options once the council determines its preferred reinstatement approach.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Wairarapa council’s climate-change adaptation programme is showing early signs of success.

From no-mow trials in public parks, to soft plastic recycling and addressing water processing issues, Carterton council is adopting sustainable practices across its business units.

The council’s policy and projects subcommittee was updated on the programme’s progress at its meeting on Wednesday.

“We are doing really well,” a spokesperson said.

“There is some great stuff happening. Things like the composting trials, waste-minimisation and progress on our district plan. There are good things in there from a climate perspective.”

A report presented to the committee described climate-adaptation successes in the council’s parks and reserves, water, waste, planning, community development and facilities.

“Climate change, natural hazard risk, and resilience are central themes woven throughout the proposed district plan,” the report said.

“The strategic direction chapter outlines the key matters to guide decision-making and introduces objectives that focus on: climate change mitigation, adapting to climate change, resilience to natural hazards, water resilience and renewable energy.”

A no-mow trial had started in selected parks from September.

This is a land management initiative where areas like parks, road verges, or reserves are left unmown for a time to study the benefits of reduced mowing.

The current trial is at Sparks Park, Carrington Park, Feist Street Reserve, Bird Reserve, Howard Booth Park, and South End Park.

“It’s not the entire park, it’s just a strip of the area – encouraging the wild flowers to grow,” a spokesperson said.

The first two climate community forums, on afforestation and freshwater happened in October and November, with more planned.

Soft plastic recycling was now available through a local supermarket, and community engagement had been encouraged through “plastic free July”, “clean-up” week in September, and similar projects.

The council had switched domestic rubbish bags to ones with higher recycled content, and provided support for Carterton’s community gardens, foodbank and composting initiatives.

“The Waignawa process water project (first stage) was opened in September providing low-cost, non-potable water to businesses within the Waingawa industrial area.

“This will reduce the use of chemicals and power by not using potable water for process water,” the report said.

The council’s climate change strategy – adopted in April – aimed to enhance knowledge and understanding and build a culture of change so that, as an organisation, the council would lead by example.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government’s proposed rates cap could put future core infrastructure projects at risk, Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor says.

The government has proposed capping rates rises at a target range of 2-4 percent a year across all general and targeted rates, excluding water charges and non-rates revenue such as fees and charges.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts said the proposal was “about stopping the runaway rate hikes” that had impacted families and those on fixed incomes.

Councils would have to start factoring the cap into their planning from 2027, with the full cap coming into effect in 2029.

Taylor said no-one, including her, wanted to see rates rises like those of recent years, with Marlborough’s increase this year at 8.61 percent.

“Those rates rises we’ve had have been very much outside of council’s control,” Taylor said

High rates rises had been largely tied to inflation, Taylor said.

“Local government inflation isn’t measured against things like butter or mince, things that households buy. It’s measured against steel and bitumen and the cost of building a bridge.

“Those costs have essentially just gone crazy in the last few years.”

Local government inflation was 3.3 percent this year, meaning almost all of a 4 percent rates cap would have been used to cover inflation, Taylor said.

Taylor said that while she understood why water charges were exempted from the rates cap, with $413m of infrastructure investment needed in the next 10 years, she didn’t understand why roading was not also exempt.

“Many councils across the country are looking at a bell wave of renewals in roading,” she said.

“A lot of those renewals are around quite expensive items like bridges … that roading is key infrastructure should be treated the same as water.”

Watts said he did not envisage a situation where councils would let the conditions of their roads deteriorate.

But Taylor said that without exemptions, councils would struggle to fund road renewals under the cap.

Under the proposed cap, councils would need to apply to a regulator to raise rates beyond the cap, which would only be granted under exceptional circumstances such as natural disasters.

The Marlborough Roads Recovery project repairing storm damage from previous years, now in its third and final stage, was partially funded by gradually increasing targeted rates until 2034. Under a rates cap, that funding would be at risk.

“We could be an early example of a council that needs to apply for an exemption,” Taylor said.

It was important the exemption process be flexible and fast-moving to support communities when responding to natural disasters or infrastructure needed for climate change resilience, Taylor said.

“The central government seems to like the term fast-track, so they’re going to need a fast-track process for exemptions in order to keep the country moving,” she said.

Marlborough would need significant climate resilience infrastructure in the future, including raising stopbanks along the Wairau River to protect towns from the increased risk of flooding, Taylor said.

“We don’t want to be having a conversation with our communities to say to them, ‘we can’t do this work, we can’t protect you, we can’t renew that bridge’.

“But if there is not enough flexibility built into this system of exemptions, then that’s a conversation that we might end up having over the next 10 and 20 years.”

While most infrastructure investment was funded through debt, council had to be cautious as to how much they allow debt to make up funding shortfalls, she said.

On Tuesday, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said that a rates cap could lead to a greater debt burden as council’s could be forced to rely more heavily on debt to finance capital expenditure.

Councils that responded to the rates cap by loading up on debt could see their credit ratings downgraded, making it more expensive to borrow.

Uncertainty around funding and exemptions meant councils could be reluctant to take on new projects, Taylor said.

“The one that springs to my mind immediately is the homeless, the issue that we’re seeing rising here in Marlborough.

“We will struggle to consider to take on any more obligations … where the community is very, very keen for us to take a lead, we just won’t be able to.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand