Mayor's Message

The toughest issue for Council this term is dealing with the repairs and cost of the August 2022 storm. Nelsonians showed a tremendous amount of goodwill and support for each other in the months that followed. The task has become harder now as we are down to the most difficult cases of damaged properties and must fund the huge bills.

A Council proposal to introduce an annual storm recovery levy for a decade is causing understandable angst. The levy was initially proposed at $330 per rateable property but we dropped it to $300 by spreading it over all separately occupied units. It is important Nelsonians understand what the levy is funding.

The total cost to Council from the storm is estimated at $89.5 million. The emergency response cost $2.3m, $19.3m is for repairing roads, $17.1m for river works, $11.1m for water services and $9.3m for parks and streams. The cost of stabilising landslides or buying property where it is uneconomic to do so is $30.4m, of which $27.4m is on Council land and $3m on private land.
I have worked hard to offset this cost to ratepayers by securing as much Government support as possible. After declining initially, the previous Government agreed to help with the costs arising from the dozens of landslides, giving us similar support to the North Island communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. The net estimated cost to Council is $59.8 million after receiving Government support and Council insurance.

The most debated cost is the buyout of landslide-affected private land where it is uneconomic to repair. This is a nightmare scenario for the affected families. Ignoring their plight would not reduce the levy as the buyouts are a condition of the Government funding. 

Most are landslides from Council land and we have a liability. For these, we propose 100% compensation. Where it is a landslide from private land, we propose compensation of 95% if insured and 80% if uninsured. This approach is the same as Auckland, but less generous than other North Island councils. We are not aware of any uninsured cases in Nelson. 

Council could avoid the levy and add the $59.8m cost to our debt but our debt rating and ability to fund future disasters would be compromised.

These proposals will be open for public submissions next month when we publish the Consultation Document for our next Long Term Plan. We welcome Nelsonians’ views, albeit all the choices are hard.