Flood risk work on hold - Council apologises

Hamilton City Council’s Mayor and Councillors are apologising to Hamilton residents for their recent mailout to property owners regarding flood risk, and have put the current flood risk related consultation on hold while more detailed work is undertaken.

This follows 28,000 letters being sent last week to Hamilton households highlighting their properties could be at risk of flooding in the event of a severe one in 100 year storm in the city.

Mayor Julie Hardaker and Councillors have called a halt to the flood related  feedback process currently underway as part of the city’s review of its Draft District Plan. The remaining feedback sought around the Draft District Plan for High Voltage Lines, Business and Central City, Ruakura Structure Plan and Significant Natural Areas, Cultural Sites, Heritage Buildings and Significant Trees will continue.

Council will complete full assessments of properties to determine in more detail the impact of the flood modelling work on those identified as being at risk, and will then communicate that information to property owners in a thorough and better communicated way.

Commenting Mayor Julie Hardaker says: “I apologise on behalf of the Council to the people who have received letters about flooding. This has been a very poor and unnecessary process. We got it wrong and I accept responsibility for that."

Further letters were sent over the weekend to around 450 property owners about high voltage transmission lines, and Mayor Hardaker confirmed she and Councillors were not told about these until after the fact.

However Mayor Hardaker confirms: “Council is required by the Government to give effect to the National Policy Statement by protecting these high voltage line corridors, and Council has no option but to come up with planning rules to satisfy that.”

“In addition I will be asking the Chief Executive to look at how this happened so we can learn from it and do a much better job in the future.”