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There is some relief in sight for rural landowners frustrated by years of delays in carrying out much-needed repairs and maintenance to blocked and damaged drains in three council drainage districts at Te Arai, Tapora and Glorit.
Rodney Local Board voted last month to endorse a programme of urgent repairs and remediation works to dozens of drains, bridges and culverts to be funded and carried out by Healthy Waters, Auckland Council’s stormwater management division.
The meeting heard that frustrated landowners had reached the point where they were threatening legal action against Council for breaching its statutory obligations.
Healthy Waters’ Auckland portfolio manager, Andrew Chin, said the historic drainage districts had been created by the old Rodney County Council and, more recently, Auckland Council had delegated responsibility for managing them to Rodney Local Board, with support from Healthy Waters. However, the annual maintenance budget of $26,500 was inadequate and had not been changed since the 1990s, resulting in drains falling into disrepair.
“There is a high degree of community frustration at a perceived lack of appropriate repairs and remediation,” he said. “Landowners report that, as a result, their properties are subject to flooding more regularly than would be the case if the drainage district assets were appropriately maintained.”
In 2017, Healthy Waters commissioned ACH Consulting Engineers to investigate and assess all drains in the three drainage districts and found urgent repairs and remediation work were needed, at an estimated cost of $260,000.
Board members voted to endorse Healthy Waters to carry out the repairs and start regular weed spraying and mechanical clearing of drains, and also to work with landowners and mana whenua to come up with a workable maintenance plan for the future.
Board chair Beth Houlbrooke said credit was due to Wellsford member Colin Smith for his work on the issue, and she was happy they had a way forward at last, having been given an asset with an inadequate budget to maintain it.
Andrew Chin said this was a first step to “bringing the assets back to functionality”, and a long-term solution was now being worked on with landowners, who were often the best people to manage local drainage issues.
“When Council sends contractors out it’s awfully expensive compared to what local guys can do it for,” he said. “If landowners were able to employ people directly would be more effective – that’s what we’re looking at.”
