$30m extra for flood plan

Councillor John Robson

Tauranga's new people over property approach to dealing with floods will still cost an additional $30 million over the next three years.

With a quarter of the city's $392 million debt already sunk in stormwater loans, the council has decided to prioritise works on their potential to save lives rather than stop properties from flooding.

The council has been guided by advice that the investment needed to fix the city's flooding problems was "very significant" and difficult to justify in terms of prudent financial management.

A report by stormwater project manager Campbell Larking said the new approach would still help the community be better prepared and recover more quickly from flooding.

The new spending was in addition to the $15.9 million the council already spent operating the city's stormwater system.

Ratepayers will fund a new levy of $2 million a year to create a special reserve to respond to the aftermath of future floods including clean-ups and new infrastructure to take stormwater away from risk areas.

They will also pay for flood modelling of $1.4 million this year followed by $300,000 a year for the next two years.

New loans totalling $21 million over the next three years will be spent on priority catchments, mainly in Matua. Deputy Mayor Kelvin Clout said the new approach was a reasonable balance between getting the job done and having a prudent fiscal envelope.

Councillor John Robson unsuccessfully sought delaying the decision by a week in order to further consider an informal discussion among some councillors last week to see if the balance between debt and rates funding could be changed.

After being told that it would put the council at a big risk of not being able to sign off the 10-year plan by June 30, Councillor Rick Curach succeeded by a vote of 7-4 to put an extra $3 million a year into loan-funded spending for the last seven years of the 10-year plan.

Mr Clout said the suggestion came out of left field and would add $21 million to debt. Finance manager Paul Davidson warned the $21 million would put pressure on the council's 225 per cent ratio of debt to revenue from year 5 in the 10-year plan. Opposing Mr Curach were Mr Crosby and councillors Kelvin Clout, Matt Cowley and Bev Edlin.

Priority stormwater catchments

First Priority:

Matua - Smiths Rd and Eaton Crescent, Matua B, and Meadowland St catchments

Second Priority: Mount North properties.

Third Priority: Kopurererua Valley and Waimapu industrial catchments