Council requests three-year recovery plan instead of normal 10yr LTP

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

Council requests three-year plan in place of LTP

THE three years it is expected to take to fix the region’s “fragile and broken” infrastructure will make it hard to continue with a new 10-year plan, district council documents show.

In a submission to the Government’s proposed Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill, Gisborne District Council has asked to be allowed to produce a three-year recovery plan in place of the legally required Long Term Plan (LTP) for which public consultation is due to start.

“Cyclone Gabrielle has significantly impacted council’s programme of work, with financial and personnel resources being diverted to dealing with recovery efforts. Regional recovery will continue to divert time, resources, and capacity away from our BAU (business as usual),” the submission said.

“This will seriously challenge our organisation’s ability to deliver a full-scale LTP.

“Further to this, community engagement and consultation are integral parts of the LTP journey.

“Many in the community have been directly or indirectly affected by the cyclone and their ability to participate in these processes will be limited and highly variable.

“It is unlikely that standard engagement and consultation practice will secure the quality and breadth of engagement to inform the LTP.

“In addition, there is a lack of accurate and reliable asset management planning information.

“Our roading network — our most significant asset ($2 billion of $2.9 billion in total assets) — has been significantly impacted.

“Other critical lifelines, such as water supply and flood protection, have also been damaged and require planning for future decision-making regarding their operations.

“There is no reliable information on impairments and full assessment of future reinstatement remains unquantified at this point.”

The submission said it would take three years for roading to be fully reinstated.

“While urgent infrastructure repairs are under way, the complete programme of funding has yet to be agreed with funders. This makes planning beyond three years unreliable and the development of a 30-year infrastructure strategy meaningless.”

There was also “significant uncertainty” around debt and the “affordability” of the programme and, as such, the development of a financial strategy beyond three years would be problematic and unreliable.

Allowing the council to deliver a fit-for-purpose three-year plan to focus on short- and medium-term recovery work instead of an LTP would give the community assurance that it was focused on the rebuild and resilience work that had become critical following Cyclone Gabrielle, the submission said.

“This could be achieved through an Order in Council under the new emergency legislation that is being developed under urgency.

“This is an interim measure and enables the LTP to be refreshed in three years’ time when there is greater certainty and better information available.”

The move would be similar to the pathways Kaikōura District Council and Christchurch City Coouncil used to recover from earthquakes.

“It will allow the financial position of the council to be better defined post-emergency before presenting a recommended plan to council.

“A comprehensive LTP Communications and Engagement Plan was developed for the 2024-2034 LTP entitled Our 2024-2034 budget For Future’s Sake (FFS) Tairāwhiti.

“Due to the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, we were unable to launch our community online ‘check-in’ survey scheduled for February 20 to March 3 . . . Given recent events and the current environment, this early engagement will not be taking place.”