Flooded roads, communities underwater, overwhelmed storm water systems and significant sewage discharge into our waterways, harbours and seas. The recent floods and ensuing cyclone have been a stark reminder that our core infrastructure across the country lacks the resilience needed to survive major weather events and Cr Lisa Thomson is in the studio to discuss the impacts on Waikato District Council.
While the impacts in Whāingaroa were less significant than those experienced in other parts of the country, there were still multiple slips, power outages and flooding with lifeline utilities like SH23 becoming unusable for a short period of time.
“The cyclone and flooding have had an impact on communities around our district with 22 road closures and over 100 slips so there has been a significant amount of work that the council have been attending to - over and above their usual work.” Said Lisa.
Lisa, chair of the Waikato District Council Sustainability and Wellbeing Committee, says that these recent weather events have brought issues around climate action and infrastructure to the forefront.
“I would like our focus to be on climate adaptation and mitigation for obvious reasons. It’s a huge challenge for all councils across New Zealand and it sits across our infrastructure, our people to our environment so that is a priority for me, personally and developing relationships with mana whenua is another important aspect that sits alongside that.” she said.
(listen to the full interview below:)
With both the Annual Plan and Long Term Plan (triennial) coming up for review, Lisa says that decisions need to be made around where to spend money over the next three years while looking ahead at what communities might look like in 10 years time. With inflation and the cost of living increasing, Lisa says that big decisions will need to be made around what gets funded.
“We need to look at what are the ‘nice to haves’ and what are the ‘need to haves’.”
Waikato Regional Council recently announced a 5.8% rates increase amid what they said were ‘challenging economic conditions’ with WRC Chief Executive Chris McLay saying:
“In the last year or so, the world has changed on us with costs rising for councils just as they have in the supermarket and at the petrol pump. We were facing potential increases in the double digits but, thanks to the hard work of staff and difficult decisions made by councillors, we’ve been able to mitigate those impacts as much as possible while still maintaining our ability to deliver for our communities.”
Roads and Transport
SH23 is now back open with a diversion road skirting around the slip but the slip itself is still being studied by engineers in order to determine the best course of action for a fix. Waka Kotahi has indicated that this may take some time as the slip site is still moving.
While SH23 was closed, scheduled surface work on the deviation was completed and commuters may notice a smoother road surface on their drive out of Whāingaroa.
Staff from Waka Kotahi have also looked at the condition of the official emergency detour route through Ohautira Road to Ngāruawāhia and have indicated that there is funding available to fix any issues that have arisen from increased traffic on those roads.
During the closure of SH23 the Raglan Notice Board saw multiple mentions of dangerous driving on Old Mountain Road with complaints about non-residents using the road despite the road only being open to residents.
There were also a number of car crashes occurring along Old Mountain Road and Waitetuna Road with one death occurring near Cogswell Road due to a truck hitting a road worker.
The SH23 closure also saw local public transport services affected but the afternoon and weekend Raglan bus services have now returned to their usual schedule with SH23 reinstated.
In terms of the internal Raglan bus that has been in the works for some time now, Lisa reports that there have been delays with the Waikato Regional Council currently not having the resourcing to push the project forward but she hopes to see more action once more resources have been allocated.
Lisa also mentions that you can head over to the Waikato District Council website to give feedback on the Traffic Bylaw and Public Places Bylaw which are both out for consultation until March 27.
Previously part of the same bylaw, the Traffic Bylaw has been separated out from the Public Places Bylaw and focuses on specific roading issues like parking and how roads are used, whereas the Public Places Bylaw looks at activity in public places like riding skateboards, trading on the roadside and public signage. Head to https://shape.waikatodistrict.govt.nz/ to provide feedback.
Raglan Wastewater Discharge Consent
Last week on Thursday, March 9th, a hui was held via zoom to update the community about progress on Raglan’s Wastewater Discharge Consent. The hui was attended by Cr Eugene Patterson and Stephen Howard (Watercare Planner) to bring people up to speed and to discuss some of the technical aspects of the proposed land-based treatment option.
Council and Watercare are currently investigating discharge options through private land located off Mangatawhiri Rd. This work has been ongoing for a number of years with the Whāingaroa community indicating an overwhelming preference for land-based treatment options.
At the meeting, council water manager Keith Martin mentioned that there will still be some discharge to the harbour due to weather events, natural runoff of water from land and the capacity of the land based treatment options - taking into consideration that we can expect more extreme weather events to happen more frequently in the future.
Council staff also mentioned the need to take a look at long-term infrastructure planning, particularly in regards to future roads around the Mangatawhiri Rd area, with wastewater pipes needing to be installed for the new location.
Wastewater, stormwater and drinking water infrastructure are all part of the nationwide Three Waters Reforms that the central government is pushing for. Waikato District Council in 2016 engaged in their own Three Waters Reform and created a relationship with Watercare. Due to this relationship, Watercare has provided expertise around water infrastructure.
Lisa says that all information about Raglan’s Wastewater Discharge Consent can be found on the council website and encourages those interested to take a look.
Coming Up:
- Next Raglan Community Board Meeting is Wednesday, 22 March from 1.30pm in the Town Hall Supper room.
- Local historian, Elizabeth Amoore, will launch her book “The Stories Behind the Headstones-Raglan Cemetery 1860-1940”, on March 16, at the Raglan Museum from 5.30 pm please RSVP to Karyn Willoughby at info@raglanmuseum.co.nz. The Museum and Ihub will be open until 7pm.
- Raglan iHub Website launch - March 21 at iHub.