Finding solutions for Clifton and Tangoio coast

The Hawke’s Bay coastal hazards project is re-engaging with the community to build solutions for the coast between Clifton and Tangoio.

The Joint Committee met to discuss a series of community workshops, aimed at testing the project workstream outputs ahead of formal consultation in 2021, as well as a proposed funding review.

“This is complex work that we’re asking the community to look at and consider. We’re talking about engineering design, and the related impacts – costs, communities, housing, recreation, longevity of solutions. We want to take action on solutions as quickly as possible, but we know this needs to be with community support,” said Jerf van Beek, Chair of the Coastal Hazards Joint Committee and Regional Councilor.

“Since assessment panels gave us their report in 2018, the project team have been busy developing the detail around those recommendations, including developing a coastal processes model, concept designs for the proposed actions, revised costings, and a funding model,” added Mr van Beek.

“We’ve got a series of workshops lined up to talk about this work over the next six months. This is really exciting, nationally-leading work on coastal hazards and climate change, but it takes time to develop scenarios and work through with the community.”

“Our first workshop was in November and looked at the design options for the Northern Cells – Pandora, Westshore, Bay View, and Whirinaki.”

The committee, made up of partner councils and iwi, confirmed retired judge Mr Raynor Asher QC to lead a proposed funding review.

The review will resolve questions about which council should lead the implementation of the Strategy, in part due to a lack of legislative guidance.

The funding model, individual designs, costs and other elements will be the focus of public consultation before any final decisions are made.

Additionally, two reports were presented covering policy and regulation, and consentability. The reports have been developed as part of the Regulatory Workstream, and were contracted to Mitchell Daysh Limited.