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From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Everything from coal dust at Stillwater to rubbish being burned in 44-gallon drums has attracted complaints to the West Coast Regional Council over summer.
Compliance staff undertook 85 site visits in the two months to the end of January, staff … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Everything from coal dust at Stillwater to rubbish being burned in 44-gallon drums has attracted complaints to the West Coast Regional Council over summer.
Compliance staff undertook 85 site visits in the two months to the end of January, staff reported to the Resource Management Committee today.
Seven related to public complaints, 16 were for mining compliance and bond release checks, five for resource consent monitoring, and 57 dairy farm checks.
Compliance staff found several drums with rubbish burning at a Franz Josef site and they offered some guidance to the offender.
A tyre fire on Caribou Rd at Ikamatua is also under the council's gaze following a request from Fire and Emergency New Zealand, which extinguished the blaze.
A complaint about excess coal dust entering houses near the coal transfer station adjoining the Stillwater railway yard was upheld.
Staff found a lot of dust had settled on the windowsills of the complainant, resulting in the site manager agreeing to move water sprinklers at the coal loadout site to dampen the dust.
An associated transport company was also directed to ensure all trailers are covered when transporting coal in the area.
An old house being demolished near Franz Josef and illegally buried is under investigation.
"It was found that the house was buried on farmland without the appropriate consent."
The contractor had been asked to remove it to a consented dump but they had since applied "for a retrospective consent" to keep the remains on site.
Meanwhile, the council is keeping watch on stock in waterways on farms.
A Rotomanu farm pinged during a routine visit by council for three unbridged stock crossings had previously been reported and the farmer had yet to comply.
No further action was being taken about cows allegedly being in the Haast River early this month but the leaseholder had agreed to fence an area where cows were alleged to have been.
A complaint "by another agency" about earthworks at the old Seaview Hospital site was not upheld.
An allegation a Kaniere landowner was taking scrap metal to a mine site and burying it was not upheld.
Staff found the land being cleared was contaminated with scrap metal, which had been separated and was being loaded on to a truck by a scrap metal dealer.
Another compliant of a bad smell from a Hokitika transport firm yard over the new year break was found to be from the stock truck discharge sump; action was taken to mitigate that in future.
*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
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Regional updates for February 15th, see the live Stuff updates.
14th February - 10:45am Update: National State of Emergency
Minister for Emergency Management, Kieran McAnulty, has confirmed a National State of Emergency this morning due to the widespread damage across the country due to … View moreRegional updates for February 15th, see the live Stuff updates.
14th February - 10:45am Update: National State of Emergency
Minister for Emergency Management, Kieran McAnulty, has confirmed a National State of Emergency this morning due to the widespread damage across the country due to Cyclone Gabrielle.
While many regions have already declared a local state of emergency, a National State of Emergency gives the National Controller legal authority to apply resources across the country in support of a national level response.
Here's what you need to know:
- Heavy rain red warnings are in place for Northland and Hawke's Bay, with red strong wind warnings also for Northland, Coromandel and Taranaki. Check all weather warnings on the MetService website.
- States of emergency have been declared in Northland, Auckland, Tairāwhiti, Ōpōtiki, Thames-Coromandel District, Waikato District, Hauraki District, Whakatāne District, Bay of Plenty, Napier and Hastings.
- There has been a landslide in Murawai with one firefighter missing.
- Gisborne is feared cut off and the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula. Residents are to take note of the Welfare Centres for Gisborne and Coromandel.
- A number of road closures are in place across the North Island. View these on the Waka Kotahi NZTA website.
- Fire and Emergency is urging people to only call 111 if life or safety is at risk after a surge in calls.
- In Auckland there are 27 shelters and civil defence centres where people can go in an emergency.
Stuff are posting live updates and have shared what you need in your 3-day emergency kit. Stay up to date with Civil Defence updates and track the storm here.
2pm Update for Hawke's Bay:
Multiple evacuations needed in Puketapu, Esk Valley, Rissington, Omahu, Waiohiki, Jervoistown and Meeanee and Waipawa.
Many remain trapped in cars and houses. Several bridges have been taken out with access between Hastings and Napier now cutoff. More than 20,000 people are without power and cellphone communication in and out of the region is patchy.
Omahu residents needing shelter can go to Hastings Sports' Centre. Taradale residents can head to St Joseph's Māori Girls' School.
From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The West Coast Regional Council is still grappling with how to identify 'orphan assets'.
Many of the assets refer to bridge protection work or stopbanks built by different administrations, including the former Westland Catchment Board … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The West Coast Regional Council is still grappling with how to identify 'orphan assets'.
Many of the assets refer to bridge protection work or stopbanks built by different administrations, including the former Westland Catchment Board before the regional council was formed in 1989, or historically by other authorities including the former roads boards.
The Westport floods of 2021 brought the issue to the surface, especially with the ownership of historic river training works at Organs Island on the Buller River, upstream of Westport township.
In Cobden, the seawall built along Domett Esplanade in 1969 is still a matter of contention, while record floods at Reefton last winter also highlighted the problem of 'orphan assets'.
In August, former councillor Laura Coll told the Risk and Assurance Committee meeting that clarifying the ownership and assessing the state of the protection banks on the true right bank of the Inangahua River at Reefton was urgent after flooding last year.
Significant flooding at Reefton about 40 years ago had prompted the existing protection work but there was a local assumption the council was responsible for maintaining the stopbanks, despite there being no local rating district.
Coll-McLaughlin urged the council to begin to identify all the 'orphan assets' around the region, as it risked credibility issues if it had no plan or had not taken any steps to clarify ownership.
Acting corporate services manager Marc Ferguson told the Risk and Assurance Committee this week there was as yet uncertainty about the status of a list of those assets.
It had apparently been compiled internally by a former staff member, who left the council in November.
Committee chairperson Cr Frank Dooley said it was a "black hole" as was seen with Organ's Island.
"It's up to us as the responsible organisation within our region for flood protection to get it sorted," he said.
The question was, had the list been prepared?
Cr Brett Cummings suggested it might be up to councillors themselves to use their historic knowledge to come up with a list. The ownership of some
assets had been disputed, which was the reason he brought it up, with numerous examples in the region.
For example, near the Punakaiki River mouth a rockwall protecting State Highway 6 had been built in the past, and it had been having a knock-on erosion effect on the nearby shoreline, but the NZ Transport Agency "don't want anything to do with it".
Cummings said there were probably a lot of people who assumed some assets were the regional council's where in fact they were not.
*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The public will be excluded from open debate when the West Coast Regional Council receives and adopts the draft 2022 annual report tomorrow - three months late.
Keeping the report behind closed doors is being justified by council management as … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The public will be excluded from open debate when the West Coast Regional Council receives and adopts the draft 2022 annual report tomorrow - three months late.
Keeping the report behind closed doors is being justified by council management as something the auditor requires.
Last week the council's Risk and Assurance Committee 'workshopped' the draft report for several hours "line by line" after a planned extraordinary meeting in December to finalise the report was shelved.
Chief executive Heather Mabin said this morning there was nothing untoward with the draft and discussing it in the confidential meeting was "just the auditor insisting it must be adopted in-committee".
"We are not driving this classification to in-committee."
Mabin confirmed staff severance was mentioned in the report as this was a financial reporting requirement.
Reporting of the controversial agreement between the council-owned VCS Ltd and the council chairman's own company Birchfield Minerals regarding the future sale of the Grey Valley dredge, had again been disclosed in the annual report, as it had been prior to it dropping off the annual report in recent years.
Risk and Assurance Committee chairperson Frank Dooley said today he did not know why it had been placed in the in-committee section tomorrow and he would be questioning it.
It was a council document and he could see no justifiable reason for it not to be discussed in public.
"I don't know why. That is a question I have for the chief executive. I believe that the audit report should be adopted in the public meeting, and I will be moving that way."
Dooley said most of the glitches in the report had been "ironed out" last week during the workshop.
If the auditor wanted to discuss an aspect of the annual report in public excluded that could be done without having to excluded the rest of the annual report, he said.
"The balance should be in open meeting. If the document is going to be adopted it's a public document...It's not the auditors document, it's the document of the council and a review of council's performance."
The regional council changed auditors last year from Audit NZ to Ernst and Young.
*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
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From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
West Coast Regional Council staff will have renewed clout in dealing with anyone who removes rock from floodwalls.
This follows an incident late last year where council compliance staff caught a person red-handed removing a serpentine boulder … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
West Coast Regional Council staff will have renewed clout in dealing with anyone who removes rock from floodwalls.
This follows an incident late last year where council compliance staff caught a person red-handed removing a serpentine boulder from a protection wall at the mouth of Serpentine Creek, near the Coast to Coast start line.
Serpentine along with pounamu is a toanga of Ngai Tahu and is legally owned by the iwi.
The man, equipped with a trailer fitted with a winch, ignored an order by the council and removed rock anyway after compliance staff left.
A report to the Risk and Assurance Committee this week noted the council previously had a bylaw to protect its floodwalls, implemented in 2015, but it had lapsed last April. A renewed bylaw was timely given the proposed new floodwalls.
Committee chairman Frank Dooley said compliance staff needed adequate support to exercise their authority.
"We need to make sure that whatever we have in place gives them the ammunition for them to do their job thoroughly.
"We need to support them, when we find someone taking a rock out of our stopbank," Dooley said.
Acting operations manager Colin Munn said a renewed bylaw would offer staff protection and send "a clear message".
"In my experience, I have not had a lot of occasions if you need to pull a bylaw out and prosecute, but they are useful."
Dooley referred to "a threatening e-mail" he had since received from the alleged Serpentine offender, who had asked for his "physical dimensions".
Acting consents and compliance manager Rachel Clark said the alleged rock thief had since been identified.
"The rock that was taken from the Serpentine rock protection has been found, the alleged offender has been identified and questioned over the taking of the rock. The alleged offender is currently in custody for other alleged crimes."
Clark said apparently the piece of rock was mistakenly identified by the alleged offender as Pounamu.
It was too heavy for one person to carry, hence the trailer with winch to pick up the rock.
But on recovery by council it had been properly identified as a piece of Serpentine.
"It wasn't good quality stuff."
Its understood the alleged offender was visiting from Dunedin.
* Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
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From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The West Coast Regional Council faces "another very challenging year," according to Risk and Assurance Committee chairman Frank Dooley.
The committee met on Tuesday for five-and-a-half hours as it received an update on the … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The West Coast Regional Council faces "another very challenging year," according to Risk and Assurance Committee chairman Frank Dooley.
The committee met on Tuesday for five-and-a-half hours as it received an update on the council's investment portfolio, got a closed door briefing on the draft 2022 annual report, endorsed a health and safety charter and teased out a schedule of workshops for the forthcoming annual plan.
The council also has received tens of millions of dollars for 'shovel ready' projects and other publicly funded infrastructure projects to clear and show progress on in the coming year.
Councillors workshopped the 2022 annual report for about three hours
and it will be adopted next week at the first formal council meeting of the year.
Dooley thanked council staff for their work to get it over the line and under pressure.
"It's really comforting to know we're going to be able to sign-off next week. I know it's six weeks behind our statutory deadline, but there's nothing we can do about it."
An earlier briefing by council investment portfolio advisers J B Were explained the rationale of having a diversified portfolio both domestically and internationally.
Dooley said the presentation was good from a risk perspective and explained the benefits of a diversified portfolio, although the council had a responsibility "to keep oversight".
He had asked management to also present a profile of the council's liabilities in the coming months.
The council had previously been briefed mid-year on liabilities, currently $12.25m.
J B Were advisers told the council the focus was on spreading risk, over-riding the tendency for investors to just focus on returns, hence a diverse portfolio held by the council.
The past three years had been particularly challenging with inflationary pressure in the international and domestic economy but the portfolio had rendered a "reasonable" return of 11.5% in that period; the performance benchmark was 6%.
Returns should be better over the next year, advisers said.
In the past, the regional council has used the investment portfolio to subsidise its activities in lieu of rates — with the average drawdown, until two years ago, being $350,000 every six months, or $2.8m in total.
*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air
With rising inflation, the pressure is piling on councils this year to tighten their budgets to keep rates payments down for households across the country.
Overall, do you feel that your council and community board does a good job for your area?
If you don't wish for your replies to be … View moreWith rising inflation, the pressure is piling on councils this year to tighten their budgets to keep rates payments down for households across the country.
Overall, do you feel that your council and community board does a good job for your area?
If you don't wish for your replies to be used in the We Say You Say column, include NFP in your comment.
Our February issue of our Seniors Newsletter is out now. In this issue we're keeping you in the know how on copper withdrawal and how that may affect you, plus lots more.
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