Over the next 3 years we'll establish some of the key building blocks for our region’s future. To do this we will keep in mind that everything we do is in line with:

Resilient and healthy waters

Improving waterways with accelerated fixes and replacements in our wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.

• On-going development of freshwater and catchment plans to protect our waterways.
• More resilient water supply infrastructure – increase our backup supply of pipes and parts for quicker fixes.
• Increased resources for drainage management, silt and wood debris removal.

Safe and healthy people

• Accelerate the Waiapoa River Control Scheme, alongside additional infrastructure investment for new schemes protecting communities from future flooding.
• Completing the voluntary residential property buyouts for Future of Severely Affected Land Category 3 properties where there’s an intolerable risk to life from flooding or landslide and it’s not possible to reduce the risk.
• Continue with township improvements for the wellbeing of our people.

Effective regulatory functions

• Increasing resources for statutory obligations and the protection of our environment.
• Reviewing our Tairāwhiti Resource Management Plan (TRMP) to ensure best management practices for land use in our region including:
  • New restrictions on forestry harvesting to minimise the amount of slash and sediment impacting our waterways.
  • Work to develop a Catchment Forestry Plan template which can be applied across Tairāwhiti. These plans integrate best-practice management tailored to the threats, pressures and issues of each catchment.
  • Mapping our region’s worst eroding land which is unsuitable for clear-fell harvest and farming to update land overlay data to manage erosion risk. This land will be transitioned to permanent vegetative cover. To do this, we will work alongside our Treaty partners, foresters, farmers and government agencies to create transition pathways.
  • Wider policies and rules to reduce erosion risk from rural land uses on our waterways and coastal areas.

Building back our damaged roading network

Repairing and adding resilience to the network over the next 3-5 years. This includes about $250m of emergency work, and recovery of which $125m is government funded.

Sustainable and resilient waste management

• Delivering a new resource recovery centre.
• Improving kerbside collections to better separate our waste.
• Improving our landfill management to cope with receiving waste.