Hawke’s Bay Regional Council establishes cyclone recovery committee

The last of Central Hawke’s Bay isolated communities has been reconnected with a temporary crossing bridge, as roading recovery planning begins. Photo / Supplied HBG 23Mar23 - The last of Central Hawke's Bay's isolated communities is reconnected with a temporary crossing bridge this week, as roading recovery planning begins.

The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has formally approved the formation of a committee to co-ordinate and direct initiatives in support of environmental and community Cyclone Gabrielle recovery.

The new Cyclone Recovery Committee will focus on land-use planning, hazard management, risk and flood protection.

Cyclone Recovery Committee chair Sophie Siers says the committee will focus on the initial recovery and also look to the future to ensure that decisions are serving the long-term intergenerational needs of the community.

“This event has left the region in no doubt that planning for future development is critical. The infrastructure that has served us so well for decades now needs to be considered from new perspectives.”

Climate resilience will be an important consideration for the committee, and an increase in tangata whenua representation to ensure full coverage of the affected areas across the region.

The committee’s primary responsibility will be the oversight of the development and implementation of the regional council’s resilience plan, being prepared as part of the work required by the Regional Recovery Agency, along with locality plans from the other councils.

The plan will be comprehensive and inform the locality plans of other entities as well as making recommendations to regional council on work programmes to support the recovery of the environment.

The Cyclone Recovery Committee replaces the Environment and Integrated Catchments Committee and will pick up its responsibilities with regard to policy development and environmental monitoring and research. The development of the regional council’s resilience plan will be led by the recently appointed regional council recovery manager, Louise McPhail.