Nelson Mayor Nick Smith said there was a need for costs to be shared between local councils and the government over weather recovery. Photo: Supplied / Nelson City Council
Nelson's mayor says local councils and the government need to work out a cost-sharing agreement in order to build resilience when recovering from severe weather events.
It comes after a request for financial assistance to help remediate landslips in Nelson after the August floods was turned down by the government.
Mayor Nick Smith wrote to Local Government and Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty in May, seeking $6 million in funding to assist with remediating 18 slips on council land that caused damage to private properties.
He said the council was legally obligated to reinstate that land at a cost of about $5m, but said the cost of protecting against future landslides in the same area was around $17.2m.
Smith appealed to the government, asking it to consider splitting the cost of bettering the remediation works (an additional $12m) with the council.
That request was declined this week, and Smith said the council was "very disappointed".
"We're trying to do the right thing and not just meet our legal obligations, but actually build back better.
"We thought our proposition to government this year to bill back the extra cost 50/50 was reasonable, as there are future savings for the government for agencies like the EQC.
"My worry is that if we don't come to some sort of cost-sharing agreement with government, that councils more generally are going to take a minimalist approach and are not going to build up the resilience that communities are going to need in the wake of climate change and an increased frequency of these storm events."
He said the August storm event had cost the council over $70m and it had a bigger impact on the Nelson community than Cyclone Gabrielle had in Auckland.
"We'll be further pursuing the issue through both LGNZ, but also with government, because councils need to provide a long-term model that will enable us to be able to improve the resilience of communities in these sorts of storm events."
In the meantime, Smith said the council would proceed with remediating the land, including the betterment.
In his letter to Smith this week, McAnulty said the government was unable to contribute to the remediation cost and that he was confident the Nelson City Council would be able to address the huge challenges triggered by the major weather event.
"While I agree there are both local and national benefits of enhancing our resilience to climate events, at this time the government is unable to commit to contribute to the cost of building back better in the Nelson region to remedy the landslips caused by the August 2022 weather events," the letter said.
"Budget 2023 is now complete, and the priority has been to support the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle."
In a further statement, McAnulty said the funding request was not declined due to the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery and any funding to support this proposal would need specific Cabinet approval.
