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A long-running saga of who is responsible for funding, fixing and maintaining stormwater drains in two rural areas appears to be reaching resolution, with the formal transfer of responsibility from Auckland Council to the community.
Farmers and landowners in Tapora and Te Arai are setting up two incorporated societies, or drainage boards, that will set their own management plans and be funded by a combination of a targeted rate, general rates and grants from council.
Healthy Waters’ commercial and property team manager Shaun McAuley, who has been working on the issue for more than four years, said the development was exciting and unprecedented.
“This will empower them to make decisions based on asset management plans, allowing them to self-manage the council’s drainage district assets,” he said. “We see this collaborative model as a ground-breaking approach, where local decisions are funded primarily through targeted rates.
“We believe that this model could serve as a blueprint to resolve similar stormwater or flooding issues in other regions.”
Rodney Local Board member Colin Smith, who has been battling to find a satisfactory solution to the problem of years of under-investment in keeping the drains fixed and maintained, said it was great that local landowners were now in control.
“We need to move forward and this has to work,” he said. “People are happy to have a rate, but not happy to pay a rate and not get things done.
“The thing now is to get this up and operating, get some meetings happening and minutes on the table.”
McAuley said over the past two years, council had invested around $146,000 in maintenance and renewals, including around $57,000 in grants to landowners, and staff would continue to provide guidance and support to the communities.
“Additionally, we have funded the development of draft asset management plans for each district and will continue to engage with the community about these draft plans in the lead-up to the next long-term plan,” he said.
“The first funding grants will be in place before spring, enabling local landowners to request necessary funding.”
The formation of the societies is the latest stage in a long and complex history of management of the drainage districts at Te Arai and Tapora, which were originally established by Rodney County Council in the 1950s. After Rodney became part of Auckland Council in 2010, responsibility for the districts was delegated to the Rodney Local Board, with an annual maintenance budget of $26,500, but this sum was never increased. This resulted in drains falling into serious disrepair, excessive weed growth and a good deal of frustration from landowners.
Rodney Local Board and Healthy Waters agreed on a $260,000 repair and remediation package for drainage districts in 2018, funded by Healthy Waters, then in 2021, responsibility switched back to council and a targeted rate was introduced.
A third drainage district, Glorit, is not part of the new framework. Landowners there have chosen to manage the assets on their own properties.
These are the only drainage districts in Auckland – in all other rural areas, private landowners are responsible for maintaining drains on their land.
