Another step in cyclone recovery

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

A $64 million investment in flood protection, a further $125m towards rebuilding our local roads and a $30m interest-free loan are the outcome of negotiations between the council and the Government to reach a cyclone recovery cost-sharing arrangement for this region — including a 50/50 split of the net cost, after insurance payouts, of buying Category 3 properties.

Region-wide, but mostly in Gisborne, about 40 properties have been assessed as Category 3 — meaning they are not safe to live in because of the unacceptable risk of future flooding or landslide and loss of life.

Reaching this deal will allow work to progress towards providing these property owners certainty, hopefully in the very near future, so they can move on with their lives.

The Government anticipates its share of the voluntary buyouts will cost it up to $15m.

The 10-year interest-free loan will cover the council’s side of the property buyouts. In the Government’s media statement on the cost-sharing deal, it said the loan also “recognises the cashflow challenges the council faces as it remediates the worst of the flood damage”. Covering the interest costs of the facility was valued at about $17m.

Gisborne District Council accepted the offer, subject to community consultation next month, at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday.

The $204m cost-sharing package needs to be accepted in its entirety . . .

although the council media release on the deal said that while grateful to the Government for supporting our region, “more investment is still required for us to fully recover, and we look forward to further discussion with the Government in the coming months”.

The council said the $64m going towards flood protection and investigation work was for areas including Te Karaka and on the East Coast at Tolaga Bay, Tokomaru and Makarika.

The $125m for local roads (which the council is responsible for building and maintaining, as opposed to the state highways which Waka Kotahi is responsible for) will go towards transport projects and programmes to repair damage and provide greater resilience across the network.

“This will provide our primary sectors with confidence in our region’s transport infrastructure and get our economy moving again,” said Mayor Rehette Stoltz.

For comparison with other cost-sharing deals — which involve significantly more Category 3 properties — the agreement reached with the five Hawke’s Bay councils at the end of July was worth $556m of Government investment, including up to $92.5m for property buyouts; Auckland’s deal also announced on Thursday was worth $877m, with up to $387m of that for property buyouts.