He said the council should stop working on developing its Kaipara climate policy.
Larsen said council politicians should also direct KDC chief executive Jason Marris to cancel the council’s emissions accounting contract.
The Wednesday council meeting was held at the Lighthouse conference centre, high above and looking out across Dargaville township and hundreds of hectares of at-sea-level Kaipara farmland. The Northern Wairoa River that drains 3650 square kilometres of Northland snakes through the landscape. It is Northland’s largest river draining 30 per cent of the region into the Kaipara Harbour, one of the world’s biggest harbours.
Dargaville sits on the stopbanked edge of this river, still tidal as it journeys into the Tasman Sea through this vista.
“There is no statutory requirement to carry out either of these activities,” Larsen said.
“The activities do not deliver any tangible benefits to Kaipara ratepayers.”
Larsen said the $33,000 involved in these projects would be better spent on work that offered Kaipara ratepayers tangible benefits.
KDC became a signatory to New Zealand’s first collaborative region-wide local government climate change adaptation strategy in 2022.
Te Tai Tokerau Climate Adaptation Strategy was formally adopted by KDC, Whangārei District Council (WDC), Far North District Council (FNDC) and Northland Regional Council (NRC) 18 months ago.
The strategy grew out of collaborative inter-council work over several years by the region’s staff-level climate adaptation Te Tai Tokerau (CATT) group and governance-level joint climate change adaptation committee, working with hapū and iwi representatives.
It underpins the four individual Northland councils’ mahi with more than 200,000 people across nearly 14,000sq km and 3200km of coastline.
Seventy towns and localities in Kaipara and around the rest of Northland are projected to be significantly affected by coastal flooding, erosion and permanent inundation through sea level rise in the next 100 years and beyond.
The strategy includes a participating councils’ action plan, with 46 priority actions and supporting technical information. It provides a local framework to deal with existing concerns expected to amplify in the future.
Meanwhile, Kaipara’s Ruawai/Raupo district became Northland’s first settlement for piloting new climate change adaptation work in the region In December 2021 after a formal KDC council meeting decision.
Jepson said Wednesday’s decision would have no impact on this Ruawai adaptive pathways pilot.
Some parts of Ruawai flats are slightly above current sea levels, others half a metre below. Stopbanks of typically about three metres protect Ruawai from the ever-rising sea. Some exposed stopbanks have been topped up to four metres.
Ruawai’s $14 million Raupo flood protection and drainage network covers 8700 hectares, managing flooding risk via 70km of stopbanks, 140km of canals and drains, 52 floodgates and a flood pump.
Jepson said the council decision would not affect the Raupō drainage committee which manages the Ruawai/Raupō drainage scheme.
He said the council decision to cancel the $33,000 work would save ratepayers’ and residents’ money and stop it doubling up with central government obligations.
“We must continually look for savings and efficiencies in our budgets wherever we can. I would rather give funding to activities that are real, actions such as supporting the Raupō drainage scheme, which has shown tangible benefits as evidenced in Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year and responds directly to the effects of weather events,” Jepson said.
“It’s obvious that central government covers all these issues and we are repeating a process that we don’t need to.”
■ Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
