Mayor and Council Provide Cyclone Recovery Updates and Call for Long-Term Resilience

At the 5.30pm meeting Mayor Len Salt talked about the Mayoral Relief Fund of $100,000 which has received another $36,000 in donations from local people, and how businesses and individuals can apply for assistance from the fund.

Mayor Salt also noted the recent announcement from the Government of a further $1.7 million in funding for Mayoral Relief Funds to be disbursed to impacted communities in affected regions. Included in this announcement was $500,000 specifically for Thames-Coromandel, Matamata-Piako and Hauraki Districts. The final allocation of the amounts between the three districts has yet to be determined, and some of this money could potentially go towards the Mayoral Relief Fund.

There has also been an announcement of $250 million which sounds like a lot, but in reality, there's a chance that about a third of that will be soaked up just in state highway 25a. I've been up there, I've seen it. It is catastrophic. It's not an easy fix. It's not a quick fix. It's not a Bailey bridge fix. And so, we need to take that out of the conversation for probably a year. But I know that Waka Kotahi has come back, with three potential options. 

 – Len Salt, Mayor Thames Coromandel District Council

A fix to support long-term resilience

There was also discussion about how the mood in ‘Wellington’ has changed from a need to 'patch things up' to a need to get things moving and for long-term resilience for communities like the Coromandel Peninsula. There is a call for the current and successive governments needing to commit to supporting the survival and resilience of communities like the Coromandel Peninsula.

It was noted that the pace of legislative reform is a concern for the council, particularly around climate change adaptation and RMA reforms.

TCDC Economic development

Mitchell King (TCDC Economic Development Advisor) was also in attendance and explained that his role is to gather information about the impact of storm events on people and businesses and find ways to communicate that to people.

Mr King noted that Council and community are committed to supporting community initiatives and that:

• TCDC has circulated a business survey and are advocating for support from the government in the form of business grants, support, and access to professional services.
• He is interested in long-term community resilience and is gathering stories from impacted people to better understand the nuanced impacts of storm events.

Mr King said he is available to connect people with resources and can be contacted by calling 07 868 0200 or via email.