Golf course to pay price of May floods

A Tauranga golf course could become a stormwater catchment under a plan to improve the city's drainage system after the May floods.

Tauranga District Council said yesterday that it hoped to build an embankment around part of Otumoetai Golf Club to prevent future flooding of nearby residential areas that were swamped on May 18.

Council chief executive Stephen Town said the golf course would only be used as a catchment in very heavy rain, but golf would not be able to be played at those times.

He made the announcement at one of two public meetings held yesterday to update residents on the disaster recovery and plans to upgrade stormwater systems in affected suburbs.

The golf club's president, Allen Fisk, said it was the first he had heard of the embankment plan.

"Is it your intention to turn it [the course] into the swamp it was 30 years ago?" he asked Mr Town and Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby.

Mr Fisk said the golf club already spent a lot of money keeping the course free of water without financial help from the council.

About 50 residents attended the meeting at Baycourt theatre at noon. Another meeting was scheduled for 5.30pm.

The residents learned that the files of 789 properties affected by flooding and slips on May 18 would be tagged with notes of the damage within a fortnight.

One man said the notes would devalue the properties, but the council responded that it had an obligation to record the damage.

Findings of an independent report into the disaster were also presented.

It said the primary cause was the "extreme rain event" on May 18, when 347mm of rain fell in 24 hours.

Mr Town said there was a 1 per cent probability of such an event occurring in any given year.