The repair work from last August’s storm will dominate the work of this term of Council.
My goals are to progress the repairs as quickly as possible, to build back better, to support those with damaged homes and to recover as much of the cost as possible from insurers, EQC and the Government.
The first and simplest repairs have been around the water damage to flooded homes. This work is progressing well with most insurance claims settled. Council has cleared thousands of tonnes of gravel from rivers to restore their flood capacity. We would have had more homes flooded over Coronation weekend had this work not been done quickly.
The biggest job is fixing Council infrastructure. The dozens of repair jobs required on our roads, bridges, pipes, cycleways, walkways and parks will take years. It makes no sense to build it back the same when it failed so we are investing heavily in rebuilding more resiliently.
The most difficult part of the recovery work is dealing with the dozens of damaging landslips. Eighteen of these are from Council land, which has slipped onto 33 private properties. We have received detailed engineering assessments on these and shared them with property owners. One slip is too costly to fix and we propose buying the affected properties.
This week, we announced our plan for these landslips.
Council's legal obligating is to put the land back as it was. This would cost $5 million but leave the areas vulnerable to further slips in future. Reducing these future risks involves extensive engineering works of barriers, anchors, mesh catch fences, protective matting and revegetation.
Our plan to build back better comes at a cost of $17.2 million. This is on top of the $57.1 million already committed to other recovery works.
I wrote to the Government last week seeking support to share in these landslip remediation costs. It is too much for Nelson ratepayers alone. There are benefits to Government as well as Council to building back better. Generous government support has been provided in response to Cyclone Gabrielle for Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti and Auckland. I will be working hard to ensure Nelson gets support.
