Nearly six weeks after persistent rain caused flooding on the Taieri, the Otago Regional Council has agreed to meet affected landowners.
Farmers had been calling for a meeting with the council since the floods in late May, wanting to discuss issues relating to floodgates on the upper pond area being lowered earlier than they thought necessary.
They put their request for more "clarity" about procedure for dropping the gates to the council during a public forum at a meeting last month.
However, the council had declined to meet the farmers, chairman Stephen Cairns saying it needed to wait for the outcome of a police investigation into the unauthorised propping-up of the gates during the floods.
Mr Cairns yesterday said the council "had softened its stance a little", and had decided, given the slow progress of the police investigation, it would meet "affected parties" in the interim.
He had invited those members of the Taieri upper pond ratepayers group who had spoken to the council meeting, as well as Henley ratepayers affected by the floods, to the meeting at Momona on Tuesday next week.
The regional council would give a presentation and run through what had happened during the floods and why.
There would then be a general discussion.
The aim was to give people a broader understanding of the event, Mr Cairns said.
"It's a debrief, from our perspective."
Upper pond ratepayers spokesman Simon Parks said the group hoped the council would provide it with answers about the dropping of the floodgates, and what the process would be in the future.
"It'll be interesting to hear their explanation," he said.
Senior Sergeant Darryl Lennane, of Mosgiel, said the investigation into the propping-up of the gates was ongoing but he hoped there would be an answer in the "next week or so".
