- By Laura Kvigstad, Auckland Council reporter funded by New Zealand on Air
The Auckland Council is allocating $5 million for a one-time programme to assist property owners with private access affected by road reserve slips.
At a recent council transport, resilience and infrastructure committee meeting, members voted in favour of a scheme to help those with property access issues caused by slips from the 2023 storms.
The funding will also be supported by case managers to help through the consenting and approval process.
A council report said there were an estimated 50 properties in this situation and 37 were known to council.
The estimated cost for repair for the known properties is $6.4m.
Council resilience and infrastructure director Barry Potter said the council was not responsible for the results of natural disasters and not required or funded to do work in the road reserve.
“If the council provides funding officers have identified there’s a high risk of established precedent or expectations that would apply to other natural damage hazards in the future,” Potter said.
He proposed a cap on the funding and limiting it for the unique circumstances that arose from the 2023 weather events to mitigate the risk of precedence.
Despite Potter’s warnings, an amendment was tabled by councillors Ken Turner and Kerrin Leoni to allocate the $5m towards capital works for landowners.
“There’s been a tsunami of verbiage in the last 24 hours in which we’ve all been discussing the ‘what if’ oblivious to the ‘what is’,” Turner said.
Turner said he was speaking to his fellow councillors’ humanity.
“We’re saying this is an emergency and we need to get these matters fixed fast.
“These people have been living in an emergency for the last 22 months.”
Councillor Chris Darby noted the council report suggested there was a significant financial risk from the allocation.
“A lot of the coastal cliffs of the North Shore – they had esplanade reserves on the coastal side, our assets, they collapsed exposing private assets.
“Did any part of the council contribute costs for the remediation?” Darby asked.
Natural and built environment lead Craig Hobbs said the only area where money had been invested for esplanade reserves was when it fell into the council’s category buyout scheme.
“Where do you draw the line on where public property has been impacted through the weather events which were unprecedented and our infrastructure?” Hobbs said.
“If we start looking at the wider range of the likes of esplanade reserves, parks and reserves, public properties where access into a property has been impacted, we don’t have a number, but it would be significant in terms of cost if we applied the same rules across everyone,” Hobbs said.
The amendment was withdrawn after several concerns around equity across Auckland and whether the funding would be able to stretch.
Councillor Josephine Bartley ultimately supported the original motion but said it seemed unfair.
“It almost puts the onus back on the private property owners as opposed to us as council because it’s our land and it just seems unfair,” Bartley said.
“I’m so glad I don’t own a house next to a road reserve because I don’t want to be in the position that they are in.”
The council and Auckland Transport have been directed to work out the details and process for the scheme.
