ECan Rejects Ashburton Candidate's Gravel Claims

Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 2:19 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

Canterbury's regional council has poured cold water on an Ashburton mayoral candidate's claims around gravel extraction in the local river. 

While campaigning, candidate Jeff Ryan claimed that Environment Canterbury [ECan] isn't doing enough gravel extraction in the region. 

That claim has been refuted by ECan’s hazards general manager Leigh Griffiths.

“ECan continues to work with Ashburton District Council, NZTA, the gravel industry, and the community to address gravel build-up in the district, particularly in the North Branch of the Hakatere/ Ashburton River. 

“Alongside maintaining critical infrastructure assets such as stop banks, vegetation management, and other flood resilience measures, gravel extraction is an essential component in protecting our communities from the risks of flooding.” 

Since 2022, the total volume extracted from the North Branch is nearly 400,000 cubic metres. 

“There is still approximately 800,000 cubic metres that could be removed to achieve desired bed levels in the North Branch.” 

River management is the realm of the regional council, rather than the district council. 

Ryan is also campaigning on selling extracted gravel to create income to offset rates. 

This action would require ECan granting a gravel authorisation, which is subject to environmental codes of practices. 

Ryan had stated he met with ECan staff and “they will allow me to extract 3 million cubic meters under the emergency management plan out of the Ashburton River to safeguard this town”. 

He has since clarified that he was advised that anyone could seek consent to extract that amount of gravel over 25 years, and if elected, intends to have the council pursue an extraction consent. 

An ECan spokesperson confirmed Ryan had visited ECan’s reception to ask about gravel extraction. Griffiths said that if the Ashburton District Council wanted a gravel authorisation, they can apply for this at any time. 

“An authorisation could enable the sale or storage of gravel. 

“We are in discussions around gravel supply locations for the new Ashburton bridge abutments, and we have also purchased land that will, in the future, act as a stockpiling site for extracted gravel.” 

ECan adopted a new gravel management strategy in July, focused on making extraction more effective, transparent, and aligned with the values and needs of the community. 

ECan’s long-term plan included $1.5 million to be spent between 2025 and 2030 on investigating, designing, and implementing stop bank changes and gravel removal in the Blands Reach section of the North Branch. 

There is also $1.2m for a stop bank relocation project on the North Branch near Walkhams Road. 

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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