15 May

The Government’s announcement yesterday in the lead-up to this year’s budget has contained some excellent funding news for Tairāwhiti.

Mayor Rehette Stoltz says Council is very grateful for this funding support for our region.

“We need it. Our road to recovery for this region is estimated to cost, for the initial immediate rebuild, over $1BN which was in the plan we sent to the Government at the start of this month.

“We’ve also included additional costs for future resilience.

“The funding announced yesterday aligns with our ambitions to build back smarter, so our communities are safe, protected and connected.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Minister of Finance Grant Robertson announced a $1BN package of government support for both Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti.

The recovery package is aimed at getting roads, rail and schools back to where they were before the extreme weather hit this year.

“We understand $275 million is earmarked for Waka Kotahi and local councils to repair affected roads, $100 million for flood protection funding, $35.4million to support the safety and wellbeing of farmers, $10 million for cleaning up slash and debris from river and catchment systems and several investments to support businesses with job support and retraining packages.”

Mayor Stoltz says she looks forward to the clarity around how much of this will come to Tairāwhiti.

“We know that funding of $903,283 has been announced for our region to control erosion and build capacity for our farmers. This funding is the first round to be announced from a $25.2 million Government fund that will be rolled out over the next four years to 14 councils in Aotearoa.”

Mayor Stoltz says further funding outlined in our bid to Government is yet to be announced.

“We have asked for $1BN for our roads alone, so we look forward to further announcements around the details of what each region will achieve. We will then have to assess how we prioritise what we can achieve with whatever funding we receive.

“It’s imperative we build back smarter to ensure our community is safe, protected and connected.”

The priorities Council asked for funding for phase one to connect our communities back again, include:

• Built environment (covers transport, water, solid waste and flood protection infrastructure, community facilities, emergency response and cleanup)
• Natural environment (covers assessments and analysis, environment-enhancing programmes)
• Social environment (covering community engagement resources, housing navigation services and employment and retention training)
• Economic environment (covers cost recoveries, crop losses, infrastructure costs).

For more information about the road to recovery in Tairāwhiti, please see Council’s website.

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