Dear Member,
I would like to take this opportunity to update you regarding CRU’s efforts since our last AGM.
Since December 2022, we have been lobbying the Council’s Chief Planner, Jason Holland for a meeting and after several telephone calls, we agreed to meet on 16 February.
The meeting was meant to be held with Jason alone, but after his presentation to the Climate Change Committee on 9 February and several questions posed by Councillors regarding Council and CAP's relation with CRU, that meeting also then included, Jason's boss, Kris Pervan and the CEO, Darren Edwards.
They finally understood and acknowledged that:
there was a difference between adaptation and coastal hazards,
Jacob's had not only over-egged their results but had also been sloppy and had made a fundamental error in interpreting the legislation, NZCPS policy 24.
See 16 February email here
Between February and June, we regularly met with Jason Holland and Kris Pervan.
A summary of those meetings:
We agreed that the Coastal Advisory Panel (CAP) led by Jim Bolger was not the vehicle to deliver coastal hazards
Mr Bolger through his comments to CRU on several occasions closed the door to CRU’s participation in the CAP process
Jacobs did not deliver a Coastal Hazard Risk Assessment but instead a Vulnerability and Susceptibility Assessment
For CRU - this was non-compliant with the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 – the statutory requirements for coastal hazards
Council had statutory obligations regarding coastal hazard provisions that they had not actualised – despite promising the Environment Court in 2016 that the provisions would be in place within 4 years
Why doesn’t CRU work through the CAP process?
If you haven’t been following the media publicity (or attended a presentation from Mr. Bolger), you may not know that it has proved impossible to talk to CAP about good science and policy, or to have any open and well-informed conversations about options: CAP is controlled by people and Council advisers who are not willing or comfortable with any real dialogue and/or sharing of ideas.
On 8 June, we finally had a breakthrough from our impasse!
CRU proposed that we put forward a private plan change – regarding the coastal hazard provisions (policy, rules and methods) – fulfilling the Council’s statutory obligations
But before we move forward, we need a Memorandum of Understanding signed between CRU and Council.
See draft MoU here
CRU would engage an independent planner and submit a plan change that the Council could adopt or reject.
See scope of work here
If the Council adopts the CRU plan change, the Council will pay all the costs until the process is completed (notification and hearings).
If the Council rejects the CRU plan change, they will refund CRU all costs associated with the plan change.
This is outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding.
On 10 August, CRU attended a Councillor-only briefing and presented our proposal.
See presentation here
Next Steps
The Council has requested another meeting which will determine our next course of action.
See email from Kris Pervan – 23 August here
We are expecting this to take place within the next couple of weeks.
My impression from that meeting and through discussions with several Councillors is that this would be a welcome compromise and there is a lot of support for moving forward with CRU submitting a plan change.
Now What
We need to raise the funds!!!!!
It’s to CRU’s advantage to submit a plan change – it ensures that the plan change is done right – without the Council trying to sneak in the draconian rules – like they tried to do in 2012!
Regards,
Salima Padamsey
Chair
