Reviewing flood protection costs in Ashburton

We are responsible for flood protection and recovery work across Canterbury/Waitaha. This work is funded mostly through rates from residents in ‘river rating districts’.

We manage 59 such river rating districts. Each district has a scheme of work to reduce flooding and erosion through building and maintaining stopbanks, planting at river edges, and clearing riverbeds of trees or weeds that obstruct or divert river flow.

The Ashburton River rating district covers land along the length of the Ashburton River /Hakatere from the foothills to the coast.

Funding flood protection through rates

If you live in the Ashburton River rating district part of your Environment Canterbury rates bill goes towards maintenance of the flood protection scheme. This work helps protect you, your home, land or business, and essential infrastructure including roads, bridges and power lines from flooding and erosion.

Within the district, the amount of river rates you pay depends upon the capital value of your property and the risk and benefit to your property.

Why are we making a change?

The current river rating classes have been in place for about 27 years. Things have changed since then, we’ve upgraded parts of the scheme around Ashburton and Valetta and we’ve learnt more about where the highest risks and benefits are.

Combining the benefits to the community, latest flood modelling, and the effects of the May 2021 flood, we are restructuring the rating classes. This includes reducing the number of rating classes from 13 to 6, and including some properties that now receive protection from flooding but don’t currently contribute. These changes reflect more appropriately the benefit to residents of the flood and erosion protection.

View an interactive map showing the amended river rating classes.

We are responsible for flood protection and recovery work across Canterbury/Waitaha. This work is funded mostly through rates from residents in ‘river rating districts’.

We manage 59 such river rating districts. Each district has a scheme of work to reduce flooding and erosion through building and maintaining stopbanks, planting at river edges, and clearing riverbeds of trees or weeds that obstruct or divert river flow.

The Ashburton River rating district covers land along the length of the Ashburton River /Hakatere from the foothills to the coast.

Funding flood protection through rates

If you live in the Ashburton River rating district part of your Environment Canterbury rates bill goes towards maintenance of the flood protection scheme. This work helps protect you, your home, land or business, and essential infrastructure including roads, bridges and power lines from flooding and erosion.

Within the district, the amount of river rates you pay depends upon the capital value of your property and the risk and benefit to your property.

Why are we making a change?

The current river rating classes have been in place for about 27 years. Things have changed since then, we’ve upgraded parts of the scheme around Ashburton and Valetta and we’ve learnt more about where the highest risks and benefits are.

Combining the benefits to the community, latest flood modelling, and the effects of the May 2021 flood, we are restructuring the rating classes. This includes reducing the number of rating classes from 13 to 6, and including some properties that now receive protection from flooding but don’t currently contribute. These changes reflect more appropriately the benefit to residents of the flood and erosion protection.

View an interactive map showing the amended river rating classes.

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

If you have questions about the proposed rates reclassification in Ashburton River/Hakatere, let us know. Enter your question in the box below and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

  • Hello, We were under the impression that Ecan had a established flood protection plan and had been implementing this. Why were we not ready for May floods, we feel let down by the previous flood plan. Ecan had been waiting for this flood ( Or this is what we were told when we questioned the removal of the burm that diverted the river away from the Milton Road River access point) and now you are asking for more money ? The access points into the river need to have a burm in the road to stop the flooding coming up the road and Milton Road south doesn't even have one. ( Proposed Class B) It looked like the plan relied on this burm in the river that diverted the flow and Ecan removed it and didn't put a burm in road to counter the removal. Then in May the river went straight up the road ! Im sure other people have their stories as well and probably worse than ours ( we are still removing rubbish from our paddocks) So how is this extra money going to help when Ecan already had how many years to prepare for the last flood and failed ?

    Rere Keefe asked about 2 years ago

    The May 2021 floods were an “overdesign” event for rural areas but performed well for Ashburton Town, which has a higher standard of protection. It is not cost-effective to provide a high standard of protection to all land.

    In almost all cases, rural areas experienced less flooding and damage than would have been the case if the stopbanks, erosion protection and fairway clearance practices were not in place. This is especially the case for low-lying areas near the main river such as Milton Rd South west of the terrace. 

    With regard to the rates on this area, there have been minor boundary adjustments in the classes in this area to more closely follow the natural terrace that separates areas of higher benefit from areas of lower benefit. The proposed change in class would actually result in a net reduction in rates (all other things being equal), going from Class AL to Class B. For 2021/22, the rates anticipated under the new proposal would have been $27.98 per $100,000 capital value, versus $38.97 per $100,000 capital value under the existing classification, a reduction of 28%. Without the maintenance of the river works, the areas below the terrace would likely suffer much more frequent flooding, while the areas above the terrace may suffer only very occasional flooding – hence despite the apparent lack of protection (apart from the town banks further upstream, which do cut off some potentially substantial flood flows), these lower flats near the river do in fact get more benefit from the river works than many other areas.

    With regard to the forested berm by the river at Milton Rd South, a gap was created to allow for construction of a pipeline by Ashburton District Council. We are intending to replant the majority of that area this winter. If it helps for peace of mind, we have recorded a drop in the average bed level of the riverbed in this area of about 0.6m since 1960, so the capacity of the river has gradually increased over that time.

  • How are you adjusting the membership of river rating district liaison committees to reflect the new allocation of costs?

    Richard mabon asked about 2 years ago

    The present Ashburton Rivers liaison committee was elected in 2020 for a term of 3 years, so will be reelected at a public meeting in 2023. For Ashburton Rivers, the elections allow for up to 13 members, including 2 each from “Ashburton-Coast” and “Ashburton to Thompsons Track" (rural), 3 each from “Ashburton Urban” and “Ashburton upstream of Valetta/Thompsons Track”, as well as 2 Ashburton District Councillors and an independent chair. 

    There are no plans to adjust the make-up of the committee in response to changes in the classification, however there is a separate piece of work reviewing the terms of reference and representation for all of Environment Canterbury’s river rating liaison committees across the region. This work is beginning around May this year and will be completed next financial year.

Page last updated: 29 Jun 2022, 09:38 AM