Mayor defends $58k grant
Alex Walker explains payment to CHB’s Ruataniwha dam company
Central Hawke’s Bay’s mayor is defending her council’s decision to help with the financial stress of a group that owns the rights to the failed Ruataniwha dam project. A $330m plan to build the dam was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2018, despite almost $20m of expenditure by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council on consents and planning.
CHB District Council approved financial support to Water Holding Hawke’s Bay (WHHB) for the purpose of assisting with the annual “science charges” by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.
A grant of $58,000 was asked for by WHHB, which was approved at a CHBDC meeting last week.
CHB mayor Alex Walker said the grant was consistent with the council’s view on the importance of water security in the district and was tagged from a reserve fund during the 2019/20 Annual Plan process.
“It’s our view that addressing water security, and the ongoing associated environmental and economic challenges in our district will never be solved by a single, silver-bullet approach,” she said.
“The agreement to provide funding to WHHB is purely about keeping options open for our community when it comes to addressing water security issues in our district.”
Walker added: “This is a vital issue for the future of the district.”
Forest and Bird freshwater advocate Tom Kay said the funding was unacceptable, with ratepayers continuously being asked to invest in a “failed scheme”.
“For $58,000 you could work with farm systems modellers to optimise 20 farms to use low irrigation management techniques and significantly reduce the need for water anyway,” he said.
“WHHB was well aware of the ongoing financial charges it was going to face every year and should bear that. Otherwise it should drop the consents.”
WHHB director Tim Gilbertson said it doesn’t have the money to pay for the charges itself.
“We’re five individuals who started this on behalf of the community — four of us are old age pensioners,” he said.
At the recent meeting, all but one councillor voted to grant the fund.
Deputy mayor Kelly Annand, who voted against the funding, said she accepts the decision.
Walker added the Tukituki Leaders Forum has been engaging with HBRC specifically on its work, funded by the PGF, to assess options for addressing water security issues.
“It has been made very clear, at every point of this process, that the group is not there to ‘choose’ options but to provide a wide mix of community views to both the issues and the potential solutions,” she said.
— Additional reporting RNZ