Flood concerns aired

Flood-affected Taieri residents and farmers meet the Otago Regional Council at the Momona Hall...
Flood-affected Taieri residents and farmers meet the Otago Regional Council at the Momona Hall yesterday. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
A "full and frank" discussion was held between Taieri ratepayers affected by May's floods and the Otago Regional Council at a private meeting yesterday, chairman Stephen Cairns says.

The council organised the meeting at the Momona Hall after calls from the upper pond group for clarity over why the pond's floodgates were dropped sooner than flood procedure suggested they should.

Upper pond group spokesman Simon Parks said farmers were not "overly happy" with the reasons the council gave for dropping the gates, but the level its staff gave for dropping them in the future did give them some "clarity going forward, so hopefully it won't happen again".

The council acknowledged it needed to improve communication.

Its relationship with farmers had been damaged by the event, he said.

That relationship would have to be rebuilt.

The group would meet next week to decide the next step.

Mr Cairns said he was happy with the turnout of about 45 invited upper pond and Henley residents.

"We tried to present to them the context of the flood event and the reasons for lowering the gates and the consequences of lowering and not lowering the gates," he said.

The council had learnt lessons from the incident, such as the need for better communication around the lowering of the gates as the issue had angered farmers.

It had "put a level on the table" for the dropping of the gates in the future, but that decision would still require a judgement call depending on the event, Mr Cairns said.

rebecca.fox@odt.co.nz

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