Mayor’s Comment for June

Last week your Council was delivered a bombshell.  We were informed that the Martinborough wastewater plant had reached capacity and that we should no longer allow additional connections to it.  As many of us know, this plant does not comply with its consent conditions.  We are now told that additional connections risk making that non-compliance even more serious.

This decision does not affect existing homes or existing construction projects that have a wastewater connection already approved.  But it does affect people who are planning to build soon.  This means that it also affects builders, developers, and people who supply the construction industry. 

Your Council will be writing to Wellington Water, the company that manages our water systems, insisting that a review takes place to identify how such a turn of events occurred.   But in the first instance we are looking for ways to get new connections installed as soon as possible.

On behalf of your councillors and community board members, can I apologise to everyone who has had their building plans disrupted by this decision.  If you wish to discuss this issue, I welcome a meeting with you at any time.

Over the past few weeks, I along with Mayors Ron Marks and Gary Cafell, have been deciding how to allocate funds from the Mayoral Relief Fund, established in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. Although the fund was generously supported, the requests exceed the money we have.  This meant that we gave many people less than they had hoped for. Having said that, we have been able to assist a lot of affected people, farms, and businesses without too much bureaucratic fuss.  And that includes helping people in the Martinborough area.

 In this context I have some suggestions for everyone.  Let’s do what we can in advance to reduce the costs of recovering from a natural disaster. For example, if tree branches are near power lines in normal times, they are likely to crash into those lines in strong winds. That can lead to buildings burning down. We should keep trees away from power lines.  It might prevent a lot of grief and save a lot of money.

The next thing we can all do is review our insurance cover.  For many people insurance can be expensive and difficult.  But all businesses should be prudently insured against major loss.  Businesses need to think about whether they can afford to replace key equipment after a flood.  Sometimes the flood will not destroy their equipment, it will just prevent them from being able to work.  There were several trucking companies that could not operate after Cyclone Gabrielle because flooded roads meant they could not get to work.  All businesses should think about Business Interruption Insurance.

What I am saying here is, to quote Benjamin Franklin, ‘an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure’.  I know there are some people who think that Cyclone Gabrielle was a one-off event.  Sadly, the studies that have been completed to date suggest that the Wairarapa is in for more flood events and more drought events than any other part of our wider region. Let us see what we can do to minimise the worst outcomes of such events.