A government plan to temporarily allow two Northland councils to reduce their statutory 10-year planning commitments could be key to avoiding the “catastrophic failure” of the roading network.

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is
proposing eight local authorities – including the Far North and Kaipara district councils – replace their 2024 long-term plans with three-year plans so they can focus on rebuilding and recovery following severe weather events including Cyclone Gabrielle.

Far North District Council Deputy Mayor Kelly Stratford said the discussion around doing a “lite” LTP with a focus on recovery was “timely”.

The opportunity to be included in the DIA proposal came immediately after a council workshop on roading issues, she said, “and the amount of work that would be needed to avoid catastrophic failure of the network, so it seemed quite timely”.

“What this means for us now is that the next LTP can be focused on roading and be for the three years 2024 to 2027.

“This gives council significant flexibility…and acknowledges the impact of the weather on our roading network.”

The Government proposal is in response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other major weather events that hit Northland and other parts of the country earlier this year.

The DIA said recovery efforts in response to these weather events have put extra pressure on council resources.

It is now calling for feedback on the proposal which would give councils “the time and space to focus on recovery and looking after their communities in the immediate term”.

A similar change was made in response to the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes in 2017 and 2016.

Stratford said frequent storms had heavily impacted the district’s infrastructure.

“Our district alone had 13 severe watches with lots of rain and wind, so what that has caused is instability in the land.

“I was only just yesterday at a developing slip site which will mean another $10m of roadworks infrastructure to stabalise a road.

“What a three-year plan does is enable us to focus on the critical infrastructure that’s been damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle, and that’s mainly the roads.”

Wild weather has wreaked havoc with Northland roads this year, causing hundreds of slips that closed vital main highways including both lanes of State Highway 1 at the Brynderwyns.

A June report by the Northland Transportation Alliance (NTA) revealed the region was facing a huge backlog of repairs that could take several years to clear.

The NTA said the need to focus on urgent road repairs was delaying routine maintenance on council-owned roading networks.

Road crews are working through repairs on 167 Whangārei roads, 104 roads in Kaipara and 179 in the Far North, which includes clearing around 1000 over slips to ensure roads were open to at least one lane.

Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson said it’s “a great relief the DIA has recognised the pressure those councils affected by extreme weather are under” and is proposing to reduce the period for their long-term plans.

“The Long Term Plan is a huge amount of work and involves many council staff, who are already flat out responding to the cyclone.

“Cyclone recovery has brought a lot of additional planning, remedial work and claims processing that will keep our people busy long term.

“Reducing the requirement from having to do a 10-year plan and have it audited, down to a three-year plan would allow us to focus on our immediate recovery needs.”

The eight councils are Kaipara and Far North district councils, Gisborne, and all councils within the Hawke’s Bay region (Central Hawke’s Bay, Hastings, Wairoa District Councils, Napier City Council, and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council).

Public consultation closes on August 4.

For more information visit www.dia.govt.nz/Local-Government-Cyclone-Response and to submit feedback email GCycloneRecovery@dia.govt.nz

Jenny Ling is a news reporter and features writer for the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering roading, health, business and animal welfare issues.