A targeted rate for district-wide flood and river resilience in Selwyn

Submissions have now closed. We're now holding hearings for individuals who wish to address the Council regarding their submissions.

Selwyn, do you agree that we should have an additional targeted rate for district-wide flood and river resilience work?

Flooding is New Zealand’s most frequent natural hazard which is going to accelerate further with climate change.

As part of our preferred option in the Community Preparedness and Response to Hazard service, we would like feedback on a proposed targeted rate specific to the Selwyn district for district-wide flood and river resilience work. We have heard that more dedicated support and increased work across the district is desired, therefore we are proposing a dedicated Selwyn district work programme that starts in 2024/25 (Year 1 of the Long-Term Plan).

This is in addition to flood and river resilience work right across the region. The six dedicated river and drainage rating districts within, or partially within the Selwyn district would remain at this stage. Our future intention is that they will be folded into one holistic approach for the district.

What is it?

A dedicated Selwyn district flood and river resilience targeted rate.

This would see $200,000 total collected for Selwyn district flood protection and river resilience work in 2024/25 (Year 1). This would increase over time. This is included in our preferred option.

What would we get?

• Investigation and development of a forward work programme
• Initial work clearing out channels and flow paths
• Weed control and planting.

What we're proposing

A separate rate charged to Selwyn district ratepayers for flood protection work within the district. This would be charged as a set amount for each rate-paying property. This is in addition to the six dedicated river and drainage rating districts that already exist.

The benefits

New Zealand has seen some significant flooding events over the last few years, and we anticipate that events like this will not be decreasing any time soon.

The big Canterbury flood event of May 2021 and subsequent smaller events have had a significant impact on our region. We are now nearing the completion of repairs to our critical infrastructure, but there is still more work to do to get better prepared for the next event.

Post the 2021 event, we trialed a small regional budget to help finance works outside of our 58 dedicated river and drainage rating districts. This was successful and our preferred option makes a regional budget permanent. It is possible that with time, smaller rating districts could be folded into this approach to streamline services, create efficiencies and enable us to be more focused on whole of catchments.

The impact on you

The addition of this targeted rate would result in an extra:

• $7.08 per rate paying property in Selwyn district in Year 1 (Resulting in a total of $200,000 in 2024/25)
• $10.62 per rate paying property in Selwyn district in Year 2 (Resulting in a total of $300,000 in 2025/26)
• $14.16 per rate paying property in Selwyn district in Year 3 (Resulting in a total of $400,000 in 2026/27)