The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has submitted its Environmental Resilience Plan to the Regional Recovery Agency.

Council Recovery Manager, Louise McPhail, says “This document is our first edition of a comprehensive plan about how we, as a Regional Council, will work with the community to restore the environment following Cyclone Gabrielle. It will set a direction for the Council’s recovery, pulling on all our levers across policy, science, compliance, land management, biosecurity and biodiversity.”

As part of the official Cyclone Gabrielle recovery, councils and partner agencies throughout Hawke’s Bay were asked to produce locality plans to outline their immediate needs and priorities for the next six months. The plans will give the Hawke’s Bay Regional Recovery Agency information to prepare a Regional Recovery Plan to present to central government in beginning of June.

“There will be an initial round of engagement from June to August to get input into the second edition of the plan which is due in September,” says Ms. McPhail.

Cr Sophie Siers, Chair of the Council’s Recovery Committee says “Only through the collaboration of our whole community will we achieve a resilient recovery. This initial plan sets out how we will work with our community and treaty partners to develop our vision for the long-term recovery of our region.”

Cr. Siers says “We are already seeing that policy and practice that has served us well in the past may no longer be fit for purpose. We will have to integrate any new directions into our future work as quickly as possible. Everyone wants a thriving community existing sustainably and in harmony with its environment, and with hard work from everybody, now is our best chance to obtain it.”

A copy of the plan can be downloaded here. The Council will be regularly updating residents and landowners over the coming months about how they can participate in the consultation processes via email, on our website and by Facebook.

The Council will also be holding a Facebook Live tomorrow night (3 May, 7pm) with Ms. McPhail and Cr. Siers to answer any questions the public might have on the process. People can join the Facebook Live at https://fb.me/e/3rHQ8Zs1K.

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