GDC's drop-in-sessions to provide more information to owners of flood-affected properties

Work began in August last year on a new floodgate at Mahunga Stream in Ormond township. The work was meant to be finished by February, but cyclones Hale and Gabrielle put a temporary stop to that. File picture

Those seeking answers on the recent category labelling of their flood-affected homes in Tairāwhiti will be given an opportunity to put questions to the council in the coming days.

Gisborne District Council is running drop-in sessions tomorrow and Monday at its chambers, plus a community hui on Sunday at Te Karaka  Area School.

The events will focus on providing further information on the provisional maps released last week by the council, which indicate the whereabouts of Category 2 and 3 properties.

The Government announced those categories late last month, with the Category 3 label applied to homes the council would buy out with Government support, and the Category 2 label applying to those where interventions were feasible to manage future risk.

So far, 17 homes have been deemed Category 3 in Tairāwhiti, while around 1000 properties have been identified as Category 2.

The council would not provide a breakdown of the category numbers by suburb, saying the data would be released after the individual property owners were contacted.

Council chief of strategy and science Joanna Noble said the next stage of the process would involve engaging with those owners by area.

“This is an important step in the process to ensure we fully understand the valuable local knowledge that exists within our communities.

“We will be in touch with property owners to let them know what the community engagement process looks like for their area and how to be involved.”

The council also provided an overview of the stopbank work it’s undertaken on the Waipaoa River, which began in February 2019 and has progressed every year since.

Senior community lifelines project engineer Joss Ruifrok said apart from a half-kilometre stretch in the Ormond township which was not possible to complete because of cyclones Hale and Gabrielle, all the eastern (city) side of the Waipaoa’s stopbanks had been fully upgraded.

On the western side of the river near Manutūkē township, nearly 9km of stopbanks had been successfully upgraded.

Approximately 32km of stopbank had been successfully upgraded to date.

Engaging with Māori on future risk

Provisional maps showing the areas that fall under the Government’s three categories of future risk when it comes to flooding and landslides were released last week.

As part of that, a process is also under way to engage on appropriate processes for Whenua Maori.

“The formal process for the Cyclone Response Unit, Te Arawhiti and local councils to engage with Māori in Tairāwhiti is getting under way,” a spokesman for Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson, said.

“Kiri Allan, as the ministerial lead for Tairāwhiti, has had numerous discussions with Māori and iwi groups and Minister Robertson as Cyclone Minister has participated in discussions as well.”

Affected individuals with a residential  property in Category 2 or 3 here should contact Gisborne District Council or Wairoa District Council.

“Councils have responsibility for the categorisation of residential property.

“Individuals, groups and local iwi with Māori land issues should, in the first instance, contact their local council, who can help connect them with the (government’s) Cyclone Response Unit and Te Arawhiti (the Office for Māori Crown Relations).”