Westport's Snodgrass Road residents have been invited to a closed-door meeting on 10 August by the West Coast Regional Council to hear expert advice.
Ruth Vaega outside her Snodgrass Road home, raised on new foundations following Cyclone Fehi in 2018 with the property flooded twice since then. Photo: LDR / Greymouth Star / Brendon McMahon
In June, residents of the flooded neighbourhood on the northern outskirts of Westport, learned that floodwalls for the 34 residences had been excluded from the $26 million scheme proposed by the West Coast Regional Council, under the broader $45m business case submitted to the government.
The business case is being considered by the government after it invited the Buller District Council and West Coast Regional Council to pull together a co-investment case.
The government said that plan had to include future climate-change driven retreat and adaptation options.
Several Snodgrass Road residents are still living a makeshift existence after the big July 2021 event.
A Buller District Council-led meeting in June was unable to provide clarity for them after news emerged that Snodgrass would not be getting a floodwall.
Sarah Lee Smith said calling the regional council meeting for one hour at 9am on a Wednesday was extraordinary.
Most residents would have to take time off work to attend. It seemed the council was now acting due to "a bit of backlash".
Sarah Lee Smith is still awaiting repairs after 2 metres of floodwater ran through in July 2021. Photo: LDR / Greymouth Star / Brendon McMahon
She wanted to hear how the councils justified a protection embankment for all of Westport, while excluding 34 Snodgrass homes.
"I believe they haven't once discussed with Snodgrass as a community or provided us of their reasoning for not providing [protection]," Smith said.
"Better late than never [but] in saying that they did want us to send all the questions we may have in advance, which is interesting. I don't need to see a pre-planned answer. We'll just have to wait and see."
Snodgrass resident Ruth Vaega said the regional council timing was remarkable.
"It's the first time they've ever acknowledged that we exist," Vaega said.
The meeting would enable residents to front the technical experts used to advise on their area, despite having to submit written questions first.
"This time we'll get some answers, I think ... I don't think we're going to go down quietly," Vaega said.
There was wider assurance now the whole Westport area was considered "a test case" by the government.
"We're trail blazers - in a rotten way."
Resident expects a lecture
Fellow Snodgrass resident Paul Reynolds was not optimistic about the meeting: "It's just a farce of a consultation meeting. They've made their decision.
"We're having a delivery of consultation to us, then we can have a 10-minute [one on one] session with one of the experts. The consultation is going to be them lecturing us what we're going to get."
Residents should have been properly engaged much earlier, Reynolds said.
Joanne Dickson, a member of a new Snodgrass Road Committee, said they may formalise it once the 10 August meeting was held.
The new group had collectively submitted about 40 questions.
"It's going to be good to finally get some proper answers from the experts ... hopefully they have some answers."
About half of the 34 homes had been seriously affected by the more recent flood events but for the previous three decades "we haven't had any flood," Dickson, a Snodgrass Road resident of 34 years, said.
"But in all those years we have been requesting that a bund be built up around the river.
"Now both [councils] have come back and said neither of them own it, which is a bit of a joke," Dickson said.
Regional council chairman Allan Birchfield said he was not aware of the meeting but he believed it might be premature given the outcome of the business case was as yet unknown.
"My view is that until we've got the promise of the money from the government, nothing is going to be happening.
"I would be holding back. There may not be a whole lot for anybody."
Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.
