Flood-plan costs rise: please explain

The prospect for Dunedin ratepayers of a huge increase in the costs of the Water of Leith and Lindsay Creek flood protection scheme is alarming.

One of the first questions some will be asking is whether this knowledge was available to Otago regional councillors before last year's local body elections and if so, why was it not made public at that time so that all candidates could properly canvass the matter?

We welcomed as a general principle earlier last year the prospective arrivals of a 50-year plan for Dunedin's waterfront and a 25-year University of Otago campus master plan, but we also cautioned that the university's proposals would have to be matched in some way with the urgent flood-protection plan for the Water of Leith, which bisects the campus.

The university has yet to publicly discuss its master plan, let alone the costs and funding - it is to be hoped such discussions begin soon - but the flood protection cannot wait; indeed, work on it began last year.

But one of the council's committees has been told of revised costs more than doubling the previous estimates, to $53 million, and while the cost rise is mainly due to the delay between original estimates and a more recent analysis, the campus master plan is at least implicated in its implementation - and therefore future cost.

The scheme's highest priority area is, naturally, that part involving the Leith from Dundas St to Forth St through the campus, where the risk of floodwater escaping the confines of the river is greatest and risks the inundation of a much wider city area, as has happened historically.

Comments in a report to the council's committee about substantial planning work now being made potentially redundant because of the campus plan appear to be triggered by at least two causes: the proposed timeline for the campus plan, which could mean expensive flood protection delays; and what seems to be a major disconnect between the scheme's known design and the campus plan.

In short, the co-operation supposed by ratepayers following the agreed landscaping of the Water of Leith where it passes through the campus - agreed with the ORC and the university as long ago as 2006 for incorporation into the overall flood protection scheme - appears to be redundant. If this is the case, then the university has a considerable obligation to city ratepayers to explain just what is going on.

The report to the ORC suggested it was possible the campus plan could provide less expensive options for the flood protection work than the 2005 scheme, which has already undergone the consultative and appeal process, but of course, these might mean new investigations and resource consents.