Hawke's Bay families grapple to put their lives back together following the destruction caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. Video / Skye Clark / Supplied
A couple living in rural Hawke’s Bay may have to increase their mortgage to pay the thousands required to fix up their lifestyle block after Cyclone Gabrielle.
It comes as Sonya Kerr and Kevin Kavanagh were deemed ineligible for funding through the Ministry for Primary Industries, despite being reportedly told by a ministry representative that those on lifestyle blocks could access support.
Minister Meka Whaitiri, the Hawke’s Bay ministerial lead for cyclone recovery and Associate Minister of Agriculture, promised to check with MPI officials as to what support the pair could now be eligible for.
Kerr and Kavanagh, 47 and 52 respectively, moved from town out to their 3.2-hectare property on Puketitiri Rd in Rissington about five years ago.
There have been five large slips on the pair's Rissington property. Photo / Adam Pearse
They’d relished the rural lifestyle but were now facing a steep bill of up to $15,000 to fix broken fencing after five slips occurred on their block during Cyclone Gabrielle in February.
Both Kerr and Kavanagh were well aware that many larger properties and farms would have sustained much more damage but for them, being unable to get financial support was critical.
“We will probably have to up our mortgage to fix our fencing,” Kerr told the Herald.
“It’s just a bit crap because we’re not a big property, but we’ve got significant damage.”
About 6200 applications had been received from those seeking to access the $74 million so far provided by the Government for farmers, growers and Māori landowners to assist in cyclone recovery.
More than 4700 grants totalling about $53m had been approved and paid.
Applications closed on April 3, before Kerr and Kavanagh were told they were unsuccessful.
A statement from MPI’s investment programmes director Steve Penno said at least 51 per cent of the owner’s income had to have come from the property to have been eligible for the fund.
“This means most lifestyle blocks, including the application in question, were not eligible,” he said.
However, Kerr said a representative from MPI attended a community meeting in Rissington about three weeks after the cyclone hit and reportedly confirmed that lifestyle property owners could access funding.
The stakes for the pair were not as high as other properties - their stock was limited to four cows and 10 sheep.
Nevertheless, Kerr said it was important to her that her animals were safe and she suspected other lifestyle block owners would be in similar positions.
“I know that we’re not the only ones, there will be other people who are just falling through the cracks.
“We’re always prepared for a hole in the fence but not a hole in every single fence all at once, that’s what Cyclone Gabrielle has done.”
Minister Meka Whaitiri, the Hawke’s Bay ministerial lead for cyclone recovery and Associate Minister of Agriculture. Photo / Warren Buckland
Kerr approached Minister Meka Whaitiri to speak with her about their application being declined at Rissington’s Anzac Day service on Tuesday.
Whaitiri was sympathetic to Kerr’s predicament and later told the Herald she would follow it up.
“I’ve now got to go back and ask MPI what are we doing for lifestyle blockers because they’ve lost land [too].”
In his statement, Penno pointed to the other financial support being offered by the Government, but he could not indicate whether lifestyle block owners seeking to fix infrastructure like fencing would be eligible for them.
