The Hawke's Bay Regional Council will today consider a request by the Hawke's Bay Regional Council Investment Company to put a timeframe on the moratorium on the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme, until May 31.
Councillors agreed at a meeting on December 14 last year to halt activities related to the scheme, including expenditure on the design, development or construction other than work currently committed or contracted.
This did not apply to expenditure needed for HBRIC to comply with its statutory obligations, defend or maintain the value of both its assets and the current water sales contracts or meet the costs of any council requests.
The moratorium also required HBRIC not to enter any new arrangement that would commit either the company or HBRC to future expenditure or obligation, and called on the company to desist from taking any further steps towards acquiring DOC land under the Public Works Act.
However, the moratorium did not impact court proceedings under way for HBRIC.
That included the decision of the Supreme Court to grant leave of appeal requested by (HBRIC) and the Minister of Conservation on a controversial land swap needed for the dam to proceed.
Their request was to appeal a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal in September last year, when Forest and Bird argued the land swap of 22ha of the Ruahine Forest Park, for 170ha of land HBRIC would potentially buy from Smedley Station, was unlawful.
The Supreme Court has scheduled a two-day hearing on the matter for February 27 and 28.
In an agenda report for tomorrow's meeting, group manager strategic development James Palmer said that the HBRIC board of directors had subsequently advised that while they were comfortable implementing the moratorium they needed a resolution of council specifying a timeframe.
"The board of directors raised a concern with council staff that without specifying a timeframe for the moratorium it would effectively be open-ended, placing the board in a difficult position because agreeing to an indefinite suspension of work on the RWSS would not be consistent with their obligations to act in the best interests of the company."
At the same time a review of the water scheme was under way looking at issues ranging from costs and consequences of withdrawing the scheme, peer reviews of reports, and contracted water uptakes, a review of the efficacy of flushing flows, assessment of alternative dam sites off river main stems, and public consultation if required after the review report.
At today's meeting the council will also decide on whether to amend HBRIC's constitution to enable councillor-appointed directors to be paid an annual honorarium of $10,000.
This follows the appointment of councillors Debbie Hewitt and Peter Beaven to the board in December last year.