Riverton wharf owners fixing up the docks in the bay
Wharf owners in Riverton are hard at work bringing wharves up to Southland District Council standards.
The need for repairs come as the council has started issuing licences for the wharves again, requiring owners to address any repair and safety concerns identified during council inspections.
A report tabled at the Riverton Harbour Subcommittee meeting last month said that of the 39 licences offered, 29 had been signed and returned to council.
Of those, 13 wharf owners advised council that they had completed the required work, with six others advising that they were in the process of the work.
The council would follow up with the owners who were still completing the work to ensure that it was done as soon as possible.
Riverton wharf owner Kevin Schofield said many of the wharves had been in need of repair. ‘‘It was good the council did put pressure on us to get things moving there, because it’s quite an easy thing to put off ... you’re dealing with some big lumps of wood there.’’
Schofield said after finishing the repairs, his own wharf was in better shape than it had ever been.
‘‘Originally, they were all just built by their owners, made out of materials that were lying around. You’ve got to use certified materials now – I can’t speak for the others but my wharf is 100 times better.’’
In 2015, it was revealed that about half of the 40 structures inspected in the harbour were in need of urgent repairs.
However, at the time, the Southland District Council could not enforce those repairs, as licences issued to the private owners of structures had lapsed and could not be reissued until resource consent had been secured from Environment Southland.
Legislative changes at the time meant that the licences, once issued under the Harbours Act, fell under the Resource Management Act, with resource consent required from Environment Southland before licences could be issued.
The decision was made that the council would apply for a bulk consent for all the structures in the harbour, and then license individual structures. This means if a structure is in breach of the licence issued by the council, it ultimately means council is in breach of its resource consent.
Inspections of the wharves were recently completed, prior to licence offers being made to the wharf owners, with the completion of recommended repairs being a condition of the licences. Those who did not take up the offer of licence or failed to complete the a remedial work on wharves to the satisfaction of council would find themselves in breach of the licence conditions, and the resource consent.
It would then be up to council to take action to ensure it was not deemed to be in violation of the resource consent it held from Environment Southland.
Although the owner of the wharf owns the structure, the occupation licence and the resource consent is what allows the wharf to stay in the harbour, and without these the owner would be liable to remove the structure at their own cost.
Should the council find an owner in breach of a licence, it can terminate the licence with 40 days’ notice, or with immediate effect should the wharf pose a health or safety hazard to people or property.
If the owner did not want to remove the wharf, other options would include completing any repairs requested by council or alternatively transferring the wharf to an approved third party which will then be expected to complete the requested work.