My Account
Vulnerability to flooding is among the factors Auckland Council will take into account when making future decisions about which assets, parks and facilities damaged as a result of severe weather will be repaired or renewed.
At a council Planning, Environment and Parks committee meeting last month, customer and community services director Claudia Wyss indicated that due to budget constraints, future flooding risks may impact decisions on whether or not to repair damaged sites.
Wyss said council may have to make “some trade-offs, where we see that some of those assets may not make so much sense to renew – particularly if we’re concerned about future climate events”.
“Where we are concerned about future weather events, for example in the coastal areas, then it may make sense not to perhaps invest in that engineering there, but rather to invest the engineering elsewhere, where we’ve got greater certainty about future use.”
In response to queries to council about those comments, Parks and Community Facilities general manager Taryn Crewe said that susceptibility to future flooding was one of several issues that would be taken into account when repairs were being considered.
“A number of factors are considered when making the decision to repair or renew an asset such as asset condition, public usage, public health and safety risk, heritage classification, cost of repairs [and] exposure to future weather events.”
Crewe said that in some cases, external specialist advice in geotechnical or structural areas would be needed. Decisions on repairs of local assets were made by local boards, based on advice from council officers.
Meanwhile council has approved remedial work at 21 parks and facilities across Rodney damaged in last year’s severe weather events, including repairs to seawalls, tracks, stairs, jetties and bridges, at an estimated combined cost of $2.395 million.
Among the more extensive of the 21 capital expenditure (capex) projects approved to progress are the restoration of extensively damaged tracks in Leigh ($550,000), and repairs to the undermined foundations at the corner of Elizabeth and Queen street in Warkworth ($350,000).
In total, Crewe said severe weather caused about 439 instances of damage to council parks and community facilities in Rodney, although the vast majority were minor maintenance and make-safe repairs, falling under operational expenses (opex).
“Bridges, boardwalks and tracks were particularly affected, especially those near the coast, watercourses, low-lying areas prone to flooding and locations vulnerable to concentrated overland flows, such as steep terrain,” she said.
Flood damage at regional parks – Wenderholm, Shakespear, Tāwharanui, Te Ārai and Long Bay – has also been assessed for repairs, at an estimated cost of $950,000. These involved multiple small projects, some of which were approved to progress, while others were pending further budget approval, a council spokesperson said.
Across Auckland, the 2023 storm events caused a total of $62 million ($44 million capex and $18 million opex) worth of damage to parks and community facilities.
By the end of the current financial year, council expected $12 million of the capex projects and the majority of the opex projects to be delivered. The rest would be delivered as part of local renewal work, as the budget and prioritisation allowed.
