KEY POINTS:
The mayor of the Far North Council says local bodies should be given greater powers to ensure new buildings are stopped from being built in flood prone areas.
Yvonne Sharp said it was more practical for councils to be given greater powers under the Resource Management Act than
it was for an existing town as the flood ravaged Northland community of Kaeo to relocate.
Kaeo, with a population of about 500 people, has been hit by two devastating floods in the past four months.
Ms Sharp made the comments after the Prime Minister, visiting the flooded Northland region to survey the damage yesterday, said town's such as Kaeo may have to consider relocating at some point if weather patterns continued.
Ms Sharp said there was nothing more the council could do to safeguard the town from flooding.
"We could raise the buildings but the whole town would be on stilts or we can build in the future and think about where we build."
Ms Sharp said while Kaeo was a very small town with very little new building going on, relocating the entire township could not be ruled out.
"The community will have to think about it in the long term, it's not an easy decision and not one I would want to make about my own town."
Ms Sharp said there were huge monetary implications involved in the decision.
"The issue for us to consider whenever a building permit is lodged is whether it is in a flood-prone area.
"We need new powers through the RMA so where there are areas which are flood prone and someone wants to build, we can act.
"We don't want any problems in the future with new buildings."
Kaeo BP owner Ross Telfer told NZPA the Prime Minister's suggestion of relocating the town was "quite ludicrous"
"Where would you relocate for a kick-off, there would be nowhere suitable to go."
Mr Telfer said if they closed Kaeo it would certainly not be recreated anywhere else.
Kaeo resident Rae Moselen said the idea was "absolutely ridiculous".
"There's nowhere to move to.
"The mistake was made by the early settlers, they put the town on the wrong side of the river."
Mrs Moselen said the home she and her husband lived in had escaped any flood damage as it was on the right side of the river.
- NZPA
