Hawke’s Bay council anger as four-wheel-drives carve paths through newly fixed stopbank

Damage to a stopbank in Dartmoor due to the actions of a four-wheel-drive.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is urging people to report those vandalising the region’s recently fixed stopbanks after four-wheel-drive tracks were discovered to have damaged a stopbank in Dartmoor.

“We are disappointed, as are most people in the community, to see the damage to the stopbanks by people driving 4WD vehicles over them and leaving deep tyre marks,” a post from the regional council reads.

“The region’s stopbanks are valuable flood protection assets and areas of recreation for our community, and we have spent millions of dollars to reinstate them after Cyclone Gabrielle through continuing wet conditions.”

The council advised people to stay off the stopbanks and said anyone caught damaging them could face law enforcement action including fines.

“We will have rangers monitoring this activity over the weekend. We also ask for your help to report any inappropriate activity to info@hbrc.govt.nz, and photos and/or a video are helpful.”

Cyclone Gabrielle brought unprecedented flooding that caused about 5.6km of breaches in the 248km stopbank network across Hawke’s Bay. Further parts of the network were also damaged by erosion.

In May, the Government announced about $100 million had been set aside to raise breached stopbanks and shore up lifelines that failed during record rainfall.

Some of the recently repaired stopbanks include those in Waipawa, Dartmoor, Meeanee, Awatoto and Omahu.