Agenda of Council Meeting - Wednesday, 28 July 2021

Council Meeting item: 7.3

28 July 2021

TITLE:	Chief Executive’s Report to Council
ID:
From:	Malcolm Nicolson, Chief Executive Officer
Authorised by Group Manager:	Malcolm Nicolson, Chief Executive Officer, on 19 July 2021

Ngā mahi tūtohutia | Recommendation

That the report ‘Chief Executive’s Report to Council’ by Malcolm Nicolson, Chief Executive Officer and dated 30 June 2021, be received.

7.3.1 Highlights

Northland Transport Alliance Fifth Anniversary

Five years ago, on 1 July 2016, the Northland Transportation Alliance (NTA) was established. This provided a new and innovative approach to delivering Northland's transportation programmes through a collaboration between local government (Far North, Kaipara and Whangārei District Councils along with Northland Regional Council) and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA).

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I want to acknowledge the mahi and thank everyone involved with NTA and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) over the past five years. Anniversaries allow us to look back, reflect and celebrate the successes achieved and delivered by the NTA. Some of the NTA's highlights include:

Ÿ The development of the Regional Strategies from the Sealed Road Strategy to the Bridge Strategy.

Ÿ Improving the reach of the public transport network. This includes a new link – Bream Bay – in 2019 and two new links in 2020 – The Hikurangi Link and the Whangārei Link.

Ÿ The introduction of the Bee Card, making bus travel throughout Whangārei easier.

Ÿ In the years 2020/21, Total Mobility kept 1,316 people connected to their community.

Ÿ Developing and delivering the Regional Capital Forward Works programme. The 2020/21 Capital Works projects delivered through the NTA this past year valued at approximately $70m across the region, including over $15m of newly introduced Central Government Funded (PGF, CIP, Worker Redeployment) projects.

Ÿ Partnerships with Northland Road Safety and the Far North REAP implemented the Road to Zero strategy across Northland communities, incorporating a safe system approach that targets safe roads, safe speeds, safe vehicles and safe road use.

Ÿ Mangakahia Road was reclassified as a State Highway (SH15) and became the Inland Freight Route, this ensures three vital routes connecting Northland.

To further celebrate this milestone, the NTA produced a Special 5th Anniversary Edition of the Mahi Tahi Newsletter. The newsletter is an opportunity to read more about the NTA's key achievements over the past five years.

7.3.2 CEO’s Office

Current Legal Proceedings

Department	Description	Status
Consent decision appeal	Two separate consent applications for replacement and new consents relating to a proposed expansion of, Doug’s Ōpua Boat Yard in Walls Bay, Ōpua	Applicant has applied to the court to progress the appeals but has been advised that court caseload prevents progress at this time.
Economics - REL	Worked with lawyers to continue pursuing settlement/bankruptcy arrangements in relation to Maher Jammal.	Waiting for response from Maher Jammal.

7.3.3 Corporate SERVICES

Regional Software Holdings Limited

The Draft Statement of Intent (SOI) for 2022-24 was tabled at the April council meeting. The finalised SOI was adopted by the board of RSHL at the 24 June board meeting. The final version has a single material change from the draft. Section 4 now reads: “4 Ratio of Consolidated Shareholder’s Funds to Total Assets”

It is intended that for the 2021-22 financial year the proportion of equity to total assets be in excess of 60%. The board will re-evaluate this guideline as part of the debt and funding strategy for IRIS NextGen. A new guideline will be included in the 2022 Statement of Intent.

The adopted SOI will be published on the Councils website.

Finance

The Finance team are currently working towards completing the 2020/21 year-end draft accounts for audit review, hence there is no financial report included in the July 2021 council agenda. These draft annual accounts will be presented to the August council meeting. Deloitte will be onsite from 23 August until early September completing their review of the final accounts, which are set to be given audit clearance and be adopted by council at the council meeting on 19 October 2021.

In preparing for the financial year end, the CEO, in line with his delegation, approved the write-off of the following debt:

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Council Property Update

Ÿ The Kaipara Service Centre is on budget and eight days ahead of schedule, despite the weather impacting productive site days.

Ÿ The Kensington Crossing sale has gone unconditional.

Ÿ The sale of three significant and adjacent Union East Street properties has settled.

7.3.4 Regulatory Services

Consents in Process

During June 2021, a total of 77 decisions were issued. These decisions comprised:

Ÿ Moorings	3	Land Use Consents	17
Ÿ Coastal Permits	30	Water Permits	5
Ÿ Land Discharge Permits	2	Bore Consents	17
Ÿ Water Discharge Permits	3

The processing timeframes for the June 2021 consents ranged from:

Ÿ 1641 to 5 calendar days, with the median time being 31 days;

Ÿ 1068 to 2 working days, with the median time being 20 days.

Fifty-eight applications were received in June 2021.

Of the 110 applications in progress at the end of June 2021:

Ÿ Forty-seven were received more than 12 months ago (most awaiting further information from the applicant), with the following reasons:

Ÿ Group of groundwater take consents (Aupōuri) in process of being determined	24
Ÿ Awaiting additional information (including CIAs)	8
Ÿ Granted recently or about to be granted	2
Ÿ Consultation with affected parties/stakeholders	4
Ÿ On-hold pending new rules becoming operative	5
Ÿ Other	4

Ÿ Nine were received between 6 and 12 months ago (most awaiting further information from the applicant);

Ÿ Fifty-four less than 6 months.

Appointment of Hearing Commissioners

No commissioners were appointed in June 2021.

Consents Decisions and Progress on Notified Applications in Process, Objections and Appeals

The current level of notified application processing activities at the end of June 2021 is (by number):

Ÿ Applications Publicly/Limited Notified During Previous Month	0
Ÿ Progress on Applications Previously Notified	2
Ÿ Hearings and Decisions	1
Ÿ Appeals/Objections	1

Coastal/Water Quality Operations

All routine water quality and ecological programmes were undertaken in June, including:

Ÿ Monthly sampling runs (coastal and freshwater water quality, periphyton, cyanobacteria)

Ÿ Monthly validations of all continuous monitoring stations.

As per our quality systems, annual process reviews were undertaken for our core State of the Environment (SOE) monitoring programmes and associated processes. These reviews ensure that our programmes continue to be undertaken in a consistent and professional manner, ensuring high quality data is collected.

NATURAL RESOURCES DATA

Ÿ The NR Data team has now joined the Service Desk system to capture data issues, corrections, etc.

Ÿ LAWA Water Annual Refresh: Details of the request were provided to councils in May 2021. A number of data checks and analyses need to be completed by September 2021, ready to go-live for World Rivers Day. The updates to the Air Quality and Land Cover topics are now available on the LAWA production/public site (www.lawa.org.nz)

Ÿ The new environmental data portal for the NRC website is well underway and the expected
Go Live is now delayed to July 2021. Testing with external customers will start in July 2021. The data will be brought online over two phases:

Ÿ Phase 1: rainfall, water level, water quality, drought and coastal, wind and wave data.

Ÿ Phase 2: biological data for periphyton, fish, macroinvertebrates and cyanobacteria.

Ÿ The electronic data collection form is now developed to collect hydrology data and will be operational in 6-8 weeks, once the testing phase is completed.

HYDROLOGY

Hydrology Projects

Ÿ Soil moisture sensors have been installed at rain gauge stations at Ngataki, Mangakawakawa, Ohaeawai, Ruatangata West, Otaika, and Poutō Peninsula as part of the 2018 LTP new initiative. These sensors measure soil moisture at 200mm intervals from the surface to 1.2m depth and are used to extend our understanding of drought conditions in various geologies beyond the existing NIWA climate stations. A further five sensors will be installed in 2021 and 2022.

Ÿ Dataloggers were upgraded at Mangaharuru at County Weir, Waitangi at Waimate North Road and Whakapara at Puhipuhi (dual comms for key flood warning site).

Ÿ Levelling to Mean Sea Level has been carried out by Cato Bolam consultants at 50 groundwater bores and 16 lakes. Each station has a reference point that water level is checked against each site visit; it is the reference point that has been surveyed. Setting the data to Mean Sea Level helps with data analysis and modelling.

Rainfall

Ÿ June 2021 rainfall was near normal or slightly above normal in most locations and significantly above normal in the Bay of Islands area (209% at Waitangi McDonald Road) and the eastern hills north of Whangārei (187% at Puhipuhi).

Ÿ The exceptions to the general wet conditions, were at Poutō Peninsula and Ruawai where rainfall totals for the month were around half of typical rainfall.

Ÿ Around half of the month’s rainfall fell during a severe weather event from 7 to 8 June 2021, which mainly affected the areas with high rainfall figures mentioned above. There was no significant flooding during this event.

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River Flows

Ÿ River flows for June are characterised as “Normal” or “Above Normal’ at most stations (particularly north of Whangārei) as a result of the above normal rainfall throughout most of the region. This is an improvement on the “Below Normal” river flows observed last month.

Ÿ The Kaihū River remains low for this time of year due to the prevailing north-easterly weather events.

Groundwater Ÿ Groundwater levels have improved from last month, with groundwater systems in the Far North recording levels “Normal” or “Above Normal”. Ÿ Porotī and Mangawhai remain “Low” but have improved from their “Very Low” status last month.	Area	Status (June 2021)
	Aupōuri	Above Normal
	Taipā	Normal
	Russell	Above Normal
	Kaikohe	Above Normal
	Whangārei	Below Normal
	Marsden-Ruakākā	Normal
	Porotī	Low
	Mangawhai	Low
	Ruawai	Normal

NATURAL RESOURCES SCIENCE

Air quality and carbon emission

Ÿ Ambient PM10 monitoring results for May 2021 for the Robert Street, Mairtown (Whangārei airshed) and Ruakākā (Marsden Point airshed) stations showed compliance with the National Environmental Standards (NES) for Air Quality.

Ÿ Ambient PM2.5 monitoring results for the Robert Street, Whangārei for May 2021 were within the Ambient Air Quality Guideline value.

Ÿ Work on Monitoring Network Review Stage 2 continues for air quality. Staff are working with Pattle Delamore Partners to develop PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 inventories for the Whangārei and Kaitāia airsheds and a draft report is expected soon.

Ÿ Council’s CO2-e (carbon dioxide equivalent) monthly emissions in 2020 and 2021 are presented in the graph below. In April and May 2021, council’s CO2-e emission increased by 25.61 and 16.01 tonnes respectively, compared with emissions in April and May 2020. This is attributed to the Level 4 and 3 COVID-19 restrictions/lockdown in April and May 2020. The graph is based on live data and therefore figures for the last few months are subject to change.

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COASTAL

Council received the results from the Te Taitokerau/Northland coastal microplastic study. In 2020, council staff together with iwi and hāpu collected sand samples from 11 beaches in the Northland Region, as part of a national research project to determine the impact of microplastics in
New Zealand.

Large and small microplastics were found at all 11 beaches sampled. No overall difference in levels was observed between summer and winter and no difference was found between the West Coast and East Coast of Northland. Levels were generally lower than at sites previously sampled around Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland. Dr Olga Pantos from ESR will present the full findings to a council workshop on 7 July 2021.

FRESHWATER ECOLOGY AND QUALITY

Ÿ The monitoring site representativeness report contracted through Cawthron Institute was received and reviewed as part of Stage 2 of the environmental monitoring networks review. Overall, it was concluded that the proposed monitoring network is “fit for purpose” to report on NPS-FM attributes related to the Ecosystem Health compulsory value. As per the recommendations from the Cawthron report, the council will implement periphyton monitoring in the Bream Bay and Aupōuri areas and fish monitoring in the Whangaroa area.

Ÿ Council staff attended a workshop organised by the Department of Conservation on fish passage.

Monitoring Network Review

Ÿ As part of Stage 2 of this project, the external review work (provider - Land and Water Science) on the representativeness of the proposed river water quality monitoring network with respect to landscape and landcover controls over the water quality process has been finalised.

Ÿ The report concluded that the proposed river monitoring network with the additional 12 new sites fairly represents the variability in geology, physiographic settings and land cover across the 13 FMUs. However, there is still room for improvement in the west and far north FMUs (e.g. Aupōuri, Awanui, Herekino-Whāngāpē, Whangaroa).

Ÿ Other recommendations include:

Ÿ Testing of additional non-conventional water chemistry related to signatures of physiographic gradients (e.g. chloride, potassium, sodium, dissolved iron, dissolved organic carbon and dissolved reactive silica);

Ÿ Event flow monitoring to capture “extreme events”; and

Ÿ Integration of flow and groundwater monitoring, together with river water quality.

Groundwater

Ÿ Stage 2 of network review has been completed and monitoring programmes drafted.

Ÿ Geochemical analysis of SOE and NGMP (National Groundwater Monitoring Programme) sample sites is being undertaken. This process classifies aquifers into water types and indicates water characteristics such as age or origin.

Ÿ Aupōuri aquifer model update and scenarios have now been completed and are currently under review.

Water Quality Modelling

NR Science staff have worked with the Planning & Policy and Land teams to help NIWA finalise the CLUES scenarios model to estimate the change in nitrogen, phosphorous, E.coli and sediment loads by applying various future land mitigation options. The final report together with the GIS outputs from CLUES scenarios model have been received, which are being examined in detail by the project team.

Below is a summary of the current Envirolink projects relevant to the NR Science team:

Ÿ Ecosystem metabolism for Northland Rivers based on continuous dissolved oxygen (DO) – a report and guidance document together with a data analysis automation tool (using R codes) will be available by the end of July 2021.

Ÿ NEMS supplementary guidance on surrogate technologies for river suspended sediment load.

Ÿ Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of riverine flow management under NPS-FM, which will provide a framework for effective and efficient M&E of instream ecological response to riverine flow management by regional councils.

COMPLIANCE MONITORING

The results of compliance monitoring for the period 1 - 30 June 2021 (and year-to-date figures) are summarised in the following table and discussed below.

Classification	Total	Full compliance	Low risk non-compliance	Moderate non-compliance	Significant non-compliance	Not exercised during period
Air Discharge	49	41	5	0	0	3
Bore Consent	9	7	0	2	0	0
Coastal Air Discharge	2	2	0	0	0	0
Coastal Discharge	40	27	2	5	0	6
Coastal Permit	148	127	5	1	0	15
Land Discharge	220	134	26	6	3	51
Land Use Consent	150	64	8	3	0	75
Water Discharge	117	69	13	12	2	21
Water Permit	122	70	3	2	0	47
Water Take	159	96	39	17	0	7
Total	1016	637	101	48	5	225
Percentage		62.7%	9.9%	4.7%	0.5%	22.1%
Year to date	6352	4333	824	487	153	555
Percentage		68.2%	13.0%	7.7%	2.4%	8.7%

Coastal

The majority of consents monitored during the reporting period related to coastal discharges (treated municipal sewage, stormwater and wastewater from boat maintenance facilities and industrial sites) and coastal structures.

Following an earlier incident and enforcement, where earthworks was undertaken within a coastal wetland including construction of a reclamation, the successful remediation of the wetland was completed. This included the removal of the reclamation, remediation plan, and replanting of the affected area.

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Water, Waste, Air and Land Use (WWALU) Compliance Monitoring

Ÿ Contaminated Land Management

Four incidents involving the discharge of hazardous substances and 10 enquiries regarding contaminated land were received and responded to. 522kg of hazardous waste was disposed of.

Environmental Incidents

There were no environmental incidents reported in June which resulted in a significant environmental impact.

ENFORCEMENT

Abatement Notices, Infringement Notices and Formal Warnings

The following enforcement actions were taken during the period:

Nature of Offence	Infringement Notice		Abatement Notice		TOTAL *
Nature of Offence	No. Offences	No. Notices	No. Offences	No. Notices	No. Offences	No. Notices
Burning and smoke nuisance	1	1	1	2	1	3
Earthworks/land use	0	0	1	2	1	2
Illegal use of lakebed or riverbed	0	0	1	2	1	2
Other air discharge	0	0	2	4	2	4
Sewage**	0	0	3	3	3	3
TOTAL	1	1	8	13	8	14

*An infringement notice and an abatement notice may be issued for the same offence. This means that in the above table, Column 5 (Total No. Offences) is not necessarily the sum of Column 1 (Infringement Notice No. Offences) + Column 3 (Abatement Notice No. Offences).

**1 municipal, 1 communal and 1 commercial (campground) discharge

Other Enforcement

Ÿ Earthworks without erosion and sediment controls – Tōtara North

Charges were laid in the Kaitaia District Court on 20 July 2020 against an individual for earthworks undertaken without controls, and work within a watercourse and the riparian management zone. The defendant plead not guilty. A hearing was scheduled for 22-24 June 2021 which did not proceed due to the defendant being ill. The case was adjourned until the week of 2 August 2021.

Ÿ Open burning on industrial/trade property – Whangārei

Charges were laid in the Whangārei District Court on 27 November 2020 against an individual for open burning on industrial/trade premises; the burnt items also included prohibited items. There are two charges against the individual who plead a not guilty plea on 30 April 2021. A case review hearing was completed on 22 June 2021 and the case was set down for hearing on the 6-7 September 2021.

Ÿ Farm dairy effluent – Tāheke

Charges were laid in the Kaikohe District Court on 30 March 2021 against a farm owner and his company for offences which occurred in August 2020. There are two charges against the company and one against the farm owner. The farm has a poor history of compliance with regional rules for animal effluent disposal. Disclosure was provided to the defence lawyers on 23 April 2021. A not guilty plea was entered on 23 June 2021. A case review hearing has been scheduled for 2 August 2021.

Ÿ Farm dairy effluent – Parapara

Charges were laid in the Kaitaia District Court on 6 May 2021 against a farm owner for offences which occurred in August 2020. There are four charges against the farm owner. The first court appearance has been set down for 9 July 2021.

7.3.5 Environmental Services

LAND MANAGEMENT

Sustainable Hill Country and Regional Priorities

Milestones	Status
Farm Environment Plans (FEPs)	Over the last 6 months a temporary reporting measure (Site Visit Records) is in place while negotiations for an alternative deliverable to FEPs continue. Site Visit Records bullet point the date of the site visit, land management issues observed, recommendations, and outcome such as environment fund application, planting plan or soil conservation plan. The target of 83 was reached with 86 Site Visit Records completed covering 20,507 hectares of land.
Stakeholder engagement	Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research have been commissioned to extract and analyse tree planting data for Northland form the 2019 Survey of Rural Decision-Makers. A report will include information on demographics, economics, land use, adoption, climate change. The report will be utilised to help develop a multi-stakeholder promotional plan with our communications team to increase tree planting as part of a wider soil conservation strategy.
Land treatments – Retirement fencing	Good progress this year with 28.6 km of new fencing that retired 194 ha of eroding pastureland. The 71 ha target was exceeded by 123 ha. Despite the increase in hectarage, there was an underspend of $55,100.

Poplar and Willow Nursery

Objective	Status
Harvest	Orders have closed for the year with orders totalling 4,914 poplar and willow poles. Harvest and delivery are underway. Demand for poles needs to increase in order to meet future planting targets. The promotional plan mentioned above will help in this regard.

Environment Fund Progress

The environment fund projects have been all signed off for the financial year. A total of 87 projects were completed with a total spend of $522,250. This included $38,766 on CoastCare, $40,000 for catchment groups and $40,000 on Upper Hātea projects. A further 15 projects withdrew from their funding totalling $94,005.

A full reconciliation breakdown of the environment expenditure will be available in next month’s report.

Whangārei Urban Awa Project

The project is progressing well. Progress to date the following includes:

Ÿ 7.6 km of riparian fencing completed.

Ÿ A further 1.2 km of riparian fencing scheduled to be completed early in the new financial year.

Ÿ 1.3 km² of riparian planting to be completed by the end of the financial year.

Ÿ A further 663 m² of riparian planting planned for early in the new financial year.

Ÿ The project’s Million Metres fundraising site has raised $6,280.

A press release with case study of a completed site is planned to maintain interest from landowners as we go into the winter.

Both the Ministry for the Environment and Million Metres are planning videos to highlight their projects which should also help keep landowner interest high.

Waimā Waitai Waiora Partnership

The partnership project is now in its final year. It is moving into the busy season to plant 100,000 plants over the next few months.

Ÿ Sixteen new projects for fencing and planting within the Northern Wairoa catchment and tributaries are planned over the next few months.

Ÿ Million Metres have raised $3,146 for the project since May 2021, and efforts will continue with ongoing videos to highlight the project.

BIODIVERSITY

FIF Dune Lakes Project

Objective	Status
Aquatic weed and pest fish control	Aquatic weed control Planning is underway for the control of hornwort in four lakes. The resource consent has been submitted to cover the vegetation control as required under the NPS-FM 2020. Pest fish and grass carp Dates have been set for the spring/summer field season.
Sediment and nutrient mitigation	Sediment mitigation swales, sediment traps and a wetland area are complete at Lakes Ngatu and Rotokawau. A planting day was held on 22 June with 180 pupils and supporters from Paparore School planting 1,600 wetland plants beside the lake.
Education Days	Two dune lake events have recently been held: · Black Lake (Kai Iwi Group) – 25 May with 50 students from 3 schools. · Lake Humuhumu (Poutō) – 4 June with 77 students from 2 schools. Students planted plants provided by the Poutō Catchment Group.

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Students and community at ‘Get to know your dune lake day’ at Lake Humuhumu on 4 June

Roadside swale and sediment traps at Lake Ngatu (designed to reduce sediment and nutrients entering the lake

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CoastCare

The CoastCare planting season is underway with planting so far at Ruakākā, Whananaki and Karikari Peninsula.

Over 2,000 mid-dune and foredune plants provided by council’s CoastCare have been planted on the dunes south of Ruakākā river mouth by Bream Bay Coastal Care Trust and Whangārei District Council with help from Pompallier Catholic College, Victory House, and council staff.

This area is covered by a weed management plan commissioned by council last year. Weed control, as per the recommendations of the plan, has been undertaken by Bream Bay Coastal Care Trust and Whangarei District Council contractors.


L to R: Renew School planting by Ruakākā dune lake; planting with Haiti-tai-marangai marae at Puwheke, Karikari Peninsula; Pompallier Catholic College students helping with planting in Ruakākā Wildlife Refuge.

BIOSECURITY

Feral Deer Sightings

There was a confirmed sighting with night thermal surveillance of nine red deer on the Mangonui river reserve (Department of Conservation, Kauri Coast). These are thought to be remnants of a mass escape from a deer farm in the area in 2019. Access is being sought with the Department of Conservation to allow Biosecurity staff access to control the animals.

Further possible sightings of deer on a property in Mārua have been reported and landowner access is being sought for further surveillance of the area.

kauri PROTECTION

Tākou Kauri Sanctuary technical advisory group (TAG)

Biosecurity staff have been invited by Ngāti Rēhia to be part of a technical advisory group for the Kauri Sanctuary at Tākou Bay. The advisory group consists of experts from the Ministry for Primary Industries, Department of Conservation council, and Ngāti Rēhia who are brought together to discuss issues relating to the Kauri Sanctuary. The group’s inaugural meeting was held on 24 June with Ngāti Rēhia in Kerikeri.

Hygiene Stations to Patuharakeke

The council kauri protection team supplied a further two footwear hygiene stations to Patuharakeke for installation in the Takahiwai Forest.

Kauri Protection Education Programme

The Kauri Protection Education Programme is well underway with 19 schools visited since 11 May. To date the programme has been presented to 775 children and 70 teachers across Northland.

partnerships

Tutukākā High Value Area

Ÿ Weed control: Special Weed Assistance Tutukaka (S.W.A.T) has been working with Ngunguru School providing two workshops for year 7 and 8 students. The first workshop was held in class to help students learn to identify pest plants, understand the impact they have and learn how to control them. The second was a field-based session, putting their identification and control skills into practice.

Ÿ Kiwi monitoring: The annual listening census commenced on 29 May. Preliminary results indicate the spread of kiwi round the whole district is significant, with one site experiencing an all-time high of 46 calls over the two hour period.

Ÿ Other endangered species: At the eight Bird Monitoring Stations established within the high value area, the counts for a range of rare species during this quarter are almost completed. Results show kākā have reappeared, with three sightings so far at the Tutukākā stations.

Mid North High Value Area

Ÿ “Fight for the Wild” TV series: This four-part series has generated a lot of interest from the public, and is considered a “must watch” for every New Zealander.

Piroa Brynderwyn High Value Area

Ÿ Bream Tail Farm Kiwi: Three years of extensive pest control carried out in the Bream Tail Farm Community Pest Control Area by the owners and council has paid off with the confirmed presence of a pair of kiwi on the farm. This is the first known kiwi pair on the property in living memory, and they are likely breed this season.

Whangārei Heads High Value Area

· Weed Action Whangārei Heads: Weed amnesty (where residents of the Heads can bring down their dirtiest, nastiest most invasive weeds and dispose of them for free) has concluded for another year at the Pārua Bay Community Centre. The community filled 3 x 9 m³ skip bins - 27cubic meters with weed species from the Weed Action 'dirtiest dozen' list.

· Backyard Kiwi: Kiwi listening is well underway for with many volunteers collecting data from monitoring sites across the district to see the long term trends of kiwi. Monitoring is done over four nights with 2 hours each night.

Western Northland High Value Area

Te Toa Whenua Community Pest Control Area covers approximately 1400 ha of regenerating cleared pine forest, scrubland, and native forest in the lower Waipoua River Catchment. The aim of the project is to restore biodiversity values through intensive predator and weed control.

A possum control operation using feratox delivered through 756 bait stations has recently been carried out with an estimated average kill of 5-7 possums per bait station. The pre-monitor result (completed in September 2020) was 7.69%, with post monitoring residual trap catch (RTC) results coming in at 9% which was higher than the pre-monitor. Reasons for this are hypothesized below:

· High rates of reinvasion from the surrounding pines and forest.

· Some of the pre-monitor lines falling in gumland habitat that has very low possum numbers anyway providing a falsely low RTC result. The contractor also felt that there should have been more possums caught considering the amount of browse they were observing.

· The spacing of bait station lines are not at best practice spacing because they have had to be placed to avoid kauri as much as possible. This may mean that possums are not able to be controlled well enough to get to less than 5% RTC.

Result monitoring through RTC or wax tag monitoring will continue to test how different timing and number of pulses impact on possum numbers. Staff may also look at placing bait stations in between the current bait stations at 50 m spacings along lines to improve results.

Kiwi Coast – Northland Regional Council Partnership

Highlights of the past month included:

· Northland Pest Control Wānanga: This year’s wānanga was co-hosted by Ngāti Rēhia on Whitiora Marae with council support and was attended by 180 people.

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Participants of the Northland Pest Control Wānanga held at Whitiora Marae

· 2020 collective pest control results: Kiwi Coast pest control results from the 2020 calendar year have been collated and show that Northlanders linked into Kiwi Coast have trapped half a million pests over the last 8 years. More information is available at this website https://kiwicoast.org.nz/kiwi-coast-groups-trap-half-a-million-pests-over-8-years/.

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Kiwi Coast flier – nearly half a million pests gone since 2013.

· Pest Free Purerua: Setting up the Pest Free Purerua Project has been the big focus this month (and the year). Landowner liaison and community group discussion are a large part of gaining trust and obtaining community input. This work has culminated in a successful Whitiora Marae Wānanga and the Matakā Station-Kiwis for Kiwi Trust meeting. This month has seen an intensification of traps and trap check frequency on Purerua/Taronui and the adjoining buffer zone.

Predator Free Whangarei

The Predator Free Whangārei team (council staff), alongside key Landcare Group leads, have meet with 88 of the initial 206 landowners to discuss possum eradication and seek land access agreements.

Over the coming months the team will continue to meet with landowners and prepare to install the possum eradication trap and bait station network between Bream Head and Ody Road in preparation for the initial stage of the possum eradication which is scheduled to commence later this year.

marine biosecurity

Hull Surveillance Programme

The 2020 – 2021 hull surveillance season has drawn to a successful end with 2,145 vessels inspected over this period. Whilst the programme did have several incidents this season, for the most part these consisted of just a few individual invasive organisms on otherwise clean vessels that ultimately pose a low biosecurity risk. Where a vessel was detected with a large number of pests, the risk was mitigated quickly and the organisms analysed to determine their reproductive capacity.

In all cases it was discovered that these vessels were detected before these organisms were reproductive and/or able to spawn, reaffirming the need for ongoing monitoring of Northland’s fleet.

This month, two incidents were detected from the 346 vessels surveyed, both in Tutukaka Harbour. These vessels had been recently cleaned and each only harboured a small number of Mediterranean fanworm in niche areas which were neutralised on discovery. Staff continue to work with these vessel owners to ensure they are more vigilant at checking these areas.

Hull Surveillance Programme Results (25-05-21 to 29-06-21)	Total this period	Total YTD
Pathways Plan Compliance
Number of vessels surveyed this period	346	2,145
% Pathways Plan Compliance (all vessels) *	39.3%	44.57%
% Pathways Plan Compliance (recent arrivals) **	80%	74.1%
Vessels found with Marine Pests
Sabella spallanzanii (fanworm)	9	76
Styela clava (clubbed tunicate)	2	54
Undaria pinnatifida (Japanese kelp)	0	2
Eudistoma elongatum (Australian droplet tunicate)	2	35
Pyura doppelgangera (sea squirt)	0	0

* % of all vessels surveyed that complied with the acceptable level of light fouling as defined in the Marine Pathways Plan.

** % of vessels on anchor that complied with the acceptable level of light fouling as defined in the Marine Pathways Plan.

Blue Cradle Cruise workshop

In June 2021, a team of scientists from the Cawthron Institute, Blue Cradle (an ocean non-profit foundation), The University of Otago, Auckland University and ESR - Science and Research arrived at Marsden Cove, Whangārei on board the research vessel S/V Manawanui. The 14-day expedition kickstarts Aotearoa’s participation in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

Cruise members participated in two workshops organised in collaboration with Northland Regional Council that focused on issues associated with marine biosecurity and micro-plastics. The first day involved a hands-on workshop with over 50 representatives from local communities, iwi and hapū, central government and science research institutions. The following day, they took part in an educational experience where around 100 school students boarded the vessel to learn about the impact that marine invasive species and microplastics have on our ocean environments.


S/V Manawanui cruise participants at Marsden Cove	The workshop included presentations on micro- plastics and marine biosecurity surveillance

Ōpua Sabella eradication

Diver removal work was conducted in discrete, targeted periods between November 2020 and June 2021. Results indicate that there are no or very few Sabella located on the seafloor between structures (most likely due to unsuitable habitat structure), and we are now able to target current and future removal efforts more efficiently to the most suitable habitats and locations.

Data also indicates it is highly likely the majority of the remaining adult population have been removed. The task ahead is now to systemically remove the remaining population of recent recruits, which in turn will drive the size class structure downwards until the population is eradicated or so sparsely distributed that it collapses.

Funding is in place for the continuation of this project, and we have a good understanding of how to maximise success, providing no new incursions occur. Additional hull surveillance will be conducted over the coming years to bolster our efforts at keeping new incidents out of the Bay of Islands and we are considering ways to obtain locally meaningful growth rate information alongside the eradication work to ensure our efforts are as efficient as possible.

Clean Hull Plan

Development of the Clean Hull Plan has progressed considerably in the last quarter with drafts either complete or almost complete for the Cost Benefit Analysis and the Cost Allocation Analysis, as well as a range of complimentary pieces of work including the drafting of a Multi-Agency Agreement.

Pre-engagement with treaty partners and key stakeholders is underway and the project team are collating and considering the feedback to identify issues and opportunities as well as any implications for the direction of the plan. The team have progressed further thinking around the use of the proposed plan as a stepping-stone to a national model and are managing alignment by considering the treatment of existing rules in regional pest or pathway management plans.

Further advice on a requirement for biosecurity risk management plans for high-risk structures/activities and a briefing note on the identified barrier of ‘insufficient vessel cleaning infrastructure in NZ’ are being prepared. Decision papers for councils are being drafted as information is finalised, and planning is underway in anticipation of formal consultation.

pest plants

Eradication Plants

The main batwing passionflower Kamo and Tikipunga searches have been completed. Additional contract funding has allowed for an extended search area which has found a wider extent of infestation. The area will require follow up in August.

Weed Workshops

After COVID-19 disrupting delivery last year, 2021 has seen a welcome return of council’s weed workshops. Five workshops are being run over June and July, with excellent participation from the community. It is expected that over 90 community participants will participate over the series of five workshops held between Whangārei, Dargaville, Cooper’s Beach, and Kerikeri.

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This year’s Weed Workshops drew a lot of interest from the community

RIVERS

Long Term Plan Projects

Rivers	Comments
Awanui	Approximately (86%) of scheduled works have been completed. Approximately 60% of Alan Bell Park work and 100% Milky Way Flood Wall work remain (anticipated to be undertaken during winter).
Otīria/Moerewa	The preliminary design, flood modeling and landowner engagement is progressing.
Matangirau	Landowner engagement is progressing with expectations to start work next season.

NATURAL HAZARDS

Work Streams	Status	Comments
Region wide Coastal hazard erosion mapping	100% complete	Maps were published on the 19 April for a 3-month feedback period. Total genuine feedback enquiries responded to approximately 125.
Coastal erosion research	100% complete	Report received from Auckland University. Research focused on looking at long term shoreline change patterns using decadal-scale records using historical aerial imagery.
Region wide Coastal hazard flood mapping	100% complete	Maps were published on the 19 April for a 3 month feedback period. Total genuine feedback enquiries responded to approximately 15.
Region-wide River flood mapping	95% complete	All model results and maps have been received; quality assurance and control process ongoing; aiming to publish the maps end of August beginning of September
Whangārei River Catchment flood model	In progress	Upgrade of model including new structures, updated LiDAR and sea level rise values and recalibration. Initial draft outcomes expected at the beginning of August 2021.
Website Natural Hazards Portal	In progress	Morphum Environmental have been engaged to develop the portal; first inclusive workshop was held; draft concept is expected towards the end of July.
Whangārei Inner Harbour Hydrodynamic Model	90% complete	Detailed, site specific. upgrade of the current coastal inundation model. Draft report received with the final deliverable expected beginning of July.

Climate Change Response

Work Streams	Status	Comments
NRC Climate Change Strategy “Ngā Tāmata o te Moana’ and implementation plan	Ready for adoption	Climate Change Strategy and implementation plan was presented to TTMAC 10 June and Climate Change Working Party 16 June. New name for strategy ‘Ngā Taumata o te Moana’ – gifted by TTMAC Co-Chair Pita Tipene. Final strategy and implementation plan to be presented for adoption at council meeting 20 July.
Climate Adaptation Te Taitokerau – Joint Climate Adaptation Strategy	In progress	Work well under way on draft strategy, including chapters: · Climate risk overview (draft complete). · Local government Adaptation Toolbox (Kaipara District Council lead) – in draft. · Climate Risk and Māori (external consultant) – in progress - may not meet deadline. · Coastal community profiles (Northland Regional Council lead) - in progress; 3 out of 5 workshops with territorial authorities completed; spatial data analysis completed. · Adaptation engagement framework (Northland Regional Council lead) – in draft. · Adaptation strategy communications plan (Whangarei District Council lead) – in progress. · Strategy summary and recommendations (Northland Regional Council lead) – in progress. Aiming to have draft complete by late July.
Joint Climate Change Adaptation Committee	Ongoing	Draft Te Taitokerau Adaptation Strategy to be discussed at a workshop of the Joint Climate Change Adaptation Committee meeting 9 August, and draft presented at next Joint Committee meeting 30 August.

MĀORI ENGAGEMENT

TTMAC Strategic Priorities

At the May 2020 Te Taitokerau Māori and Council Working Party (TTMAC) meeting, TTMAC considered and decided that their strategic priorities are:

1. Development of an overarching water strategy.

2. Development of a climate change strategy.

3. Development of an economic development strategy and with a focus on Māori Economic Development.

4. Development of a marine strategy as it pertains to Te Taitokerau.

5. Build tangata whenua capacity and capability.

6. Strengthen Māori Representation in local body politics.

It was also agreed that MTAG would flesh out these priorities and bring them back to TTMAC. From May to December 2020 MTAG focused on the Build tangata whenua capacity and capability strategic priority, identifying priority areas of spending that were recommended to council for inclusion in the development of the Long Term Plan 2021-2031.

It was agreed at the February 2021 TTMAC meeting that staff would provide a summary of the work happening across council as it relates to each priority – this was provided at the April 2021 TTMAC meeting. The agreed action points rising from the April 2021 TTMAC meeting discussions were:

Ÿ That a special TTMAC planning workshop be convened in May to outline key objectives and priorities for the six agreed strategic priorities.

Ÿ That a small group of two to three members hold an initial meeting to co-design how the larger TTMAC planning workshop will be facilitated as soon as possible in the next week.

An initial meeting was held on 19 April to scope out what a TTMAC strategic priorities plan would look like, with a direction for staff to prepare a draft and then hold a workshop to discuss.

Two consultants were contracted to assist with preparing the draft and facilitating the workshop (David Badham and Makarena Dalton, Barkers and Associate).

The workshop was held on 27 May, attended by Pita Tipene (Co-chair), Nora Rameka, Mike Kake, Cr Marty Robinson (Co-chair), Lynette Wharerau, Juliane Chetham and staff. The output of the workshop was a first cut of the TTMAC strategic priorities plan with a presentation at the June TTMAC meeting.

Ngā Poutama Matawhenua Practical Māori GIS Mapping Wānanga

We were excited to have an opportunity to work with Duane Wilkins, Senior Advisor Geospatial Capability Building from Toitū te Whenua (Land Information New Zealand) on his recent visit to Te Taitokerau. Duane spent three days delivering workshops in Whangārei and Kerikeri, hosted by Ngatirehia, NGEN Digitech Academy and Te Puni Kōkiri. He also attended the Water Resilience Group meeting offering advice and support for iwi representatives.

Duane has worked over several years to empower Māori communities by providing access to digital geospatial information. This supports decision-making about their whenua and preserving historical knowledge before it is lost. He is currently delivering free, online Ngā Poutama Matawhenua Practical Māori GIS Mapping Wānanga to more than 1,000 participants.

His spirit of service came to the fore when Duane was seconded to the COVID-19 Operations Command Centre where he developed a support website and series of map-based tools to support the work of Māori and Pacific communities and NGOs in the response effort. Empowering communities is always central to Duane’s work, which is what makes him a valued and respected public servant and a recipient of the New Zealand Public Service Medal.


Duane Wilkins with Nora Rameka (Ngāti Rehia), council staff and forestry training students from Jack Johnson contractors

At Te Puni Kōkiri with staff, Māori organisations and NGEN Digitech Academy for Māori youth.

Te Whāriki Māori Responsiveness Policy in Action

Ÿ Level 1 Te Whāriki Cultural Competency Workshop held at Mahimaru Marae for our Kaitaia staff.

Ÿ Te Tiriti Health Check being developed with the Māori Technical Advisory Group on behalf of TTMAC in council’s commitment to building organisational cultural capabilities and competencies regarding Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Ÿ A mihi whakatau held for new Land Management Manager and Kaipara Moana Entity Administrator was a demonstration of staff competency and manaakitanga welcoming both staff to the organisation.

Ÿ Level 2 Te Whāriki Cultural Competency Workshops to begin for all staff in July and planning has been initiated to embed this as part of the overall training plan.

Ÿ Kaimahi Māori meetings held fortnightly to support Māori staff over a shared kai building whanaungatanga across council.

7.3.6 STRATEGY, Governance And Engagement

REGIONAL PLANNING

Proposed Regional Plan

Since the last update to council, the Court has facilitated expert witness conferences relating to ecology and planning for the fishing control/MPA appeals in order to reach agreed statements of facts. The hearing is set down for July and August.

The Court has released its final decision on mapping and provisions relating to Significant Ecological Areas (primarily affecting the Bay of Islands and Hokianga) and has agreed to put the resolution of appeals on Vehicles on Beaches and Mangroves provisions ‘on hold’ until the High Court hearing on the wetlands in the CMA jurisdictional question has been heard (set down for 6 September in Auckland).

Stock exclusion provisions have been set down for hearing from 4 to 6October.

Staff have continued to work with parties to resolve appeals relating to aquaculture provisions and have circulated proposed wording to councillors delegated to make decisions on appeals in this regard.

Staff have also instructed council’s lawyer, as agreed in council workshop on the advice of TTMAC, to request the Court adjourn the mapping of Outstanding Natural Landscapes in the CMA using a truncated s.293 process. The Court has declined this request, instead directing a three-month extension for consultation with tangata whenua, community groups and other parties with a reporting date on the outcome of this consultation of 30 September 2021.

NPS Freshwater Management - Proposed Plan Change

The Policy and Planning team have started the development of a ‘strawman’ water quality plan change document to support consultation with the Tangata Whenua Water Advisory Group (TWWAG) and the Primary Sector Liaison Group (PSLG). The PSLG will meet again to start providing feedback on the strawman document, once it is ready, possibly August. The next TWWAG meeting is on 13 August and will likely focus on further developing their workplan.

Progress has been made in delivering the science to support the proposed plan change including the update of NRC’s environmental monitoring network to meet the requirements of the NPS-FM 2020, modelling the effectiveness of different mitigation options to improve water quality with a focus on agricultural land and the allocation of $50,000 in the 2021/2022 budget to undertake similar modelling for planted forests.

The TWWAG met on 14 June and did further work on their work programme and agreed to hold a wānanga as a means of brainstorming their ideas and thoughts as to the work needed, to stocktake the work already being done by hapū and whanau, and what Te Mana O Te Wai means.

District Planning

Two appeals have been lodged on decisions on a Plan Change to the Kaipara District Plan. Private plan change 78 (Estuary Estates) sought adjustments to existing residential and business zoning for 130ha of land in Mangawhai. While council did not lodge submissions on the plan change, staff consider there is merit in council joining both appeals as an interested party under section 274 of the Resource Management Act 1991.

The council interests in the appeals relates to ensuring appropriate three waters infrastructure is provided (particularly water supply) and the development is consistent with direction in the Regional Policy Statement. Given timeframes, the Executive Leadership Team exercised delegated authority to approve lodging of the s274 notices with the Environment Court (the appeal period closed 23 June and notices to join proceedings are to be filed before 14 July).

NATIONAL INITIATIVES

Three Waters Reform

The Government has announced its package of reforms for delivery of three waters services and infrastructure. The key elements of the reforms include:

Ÿ Creation of four publicly owned water services entities to own and operate three water services on behalf of local authorities – these entities are to be operationally and financially separate from local authorities.

Ÿ Establishment of independent boards to govern each water service entity.

Ÿ Each entity will have a Regional Representative Group to represent the local authority ‘owners’ of the entity and mana whenua (a 50:50 representation from each) – this group will issue a statement of strategic and performance expectations to inform the management of three waters services. Local authority representatives are likely to be elected members or suitably qualified council officers.

Ÿ Each entity will be required to engage with consumers and communities and establish a ‘consumer forum’.

Ÿ Entities will be required to be transparent in how they calculate and set prices, and must engage with consumers and communities on proposed prices and charges,

Ÿ Development of an economic regulation and consumer protection regime (to be consulted on).

Ÿ Controls on privatisation requiring a 75% majority of the Regional Representative Group and a public referendum with 75% in favour before privatisation proposals can proceed.

Ÿ Requiring the entities to participate in the new resource management system (including spatial planning and providing infrastructure for growth).

Ÿ Development of a Government Policy Statement to provide strategic direction, guide investment by entities and direction on providing for Māori interests and participation.

Northland is to be included in ‘Entity A’ made up of Auckland, Far North, Kaipara and Whangārei jurisdictions with a ‘connected population’ of 1.7 million. The DIA has estimated average household cost for consumers in Entity A of $800 with the reforms and $2,170 without (by 2051).

More detail is available here: https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/Three-waters-reform-programme/$file/transforming-the-system-for-delivering-three-waters-services-the-case-for-change-and-summary-of-proposals-30-june-2021.pdf

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Investment and Growth Reserve – Projects Report

Project	Update	Future developments/ reporting
Extension 350	Participated in evaluation group quarterly review meeting

Ÿ Project Development funding payments made to Northland Inc to support business case developments for the Ipipiri Great Walk and for the revision/redevelopment of Extenison 350.

Other Work Undertaken

Ÿ Joint economic development initiative – co-ordinated the signing of documents relating to the share transfer and Shareholders’ Agreement. Northland Inc is now jointly and equally owned by Northland Regional Council, Kaipara District Council and Far North District Council effective 1 July 2021.

Ÿ Northland Inc – worked with Northland to develop key performance indicators to include in final SOI.

Ÿ Northland Inc quarterly workshop – organised final quarterly workshop held on 22 June.

Ÿ Northland Economic Quarterly – June 2021 issued prepared, distributed and avilable online at https://www.nrc.govt.nz/resource-library-summary/newsletters/economic-quarterly/ . The annual section reports on Northland data from the latest Agricultural Production Statistics while the spotlight section examines the increase in recipients of Jobseeker Support benefit in Northland. The NEQ is available through council’s eNewsletter service, sign-up at: www.nrc.govt.nz/enewsletters.

Ÿ Economic information – presentation to Education2Employment Te Tai Tokerau Teachers Day event at Ōkaihau College.

Ÿ Infrastructure for a Better Future – participated in a joint submission with other Northland councils, large private sector firms and Chamber of Commerce in response to the Aotearoa New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy Consultation Document released by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission.

Ÿ Hokianga Navigator Role – sent a letter formally withdrawing council’s funding contribution as the position is not proceeding because other required co-funding sources were not secured.

Ÿ Oruku Landing Conference and Event Centre – continue to meet regularly with WDC and NDC representatives to develop project to a postion whereby WDC can make a decision on whether or not to proceed.

ONLINE CHANNELS

Most popular content on Facebook: Most popular post for June was the TVNZ Breakfast interview with Councillor Amy MacDonald and NorthTec’s Dr. Manue Martinez on the LittaTraps. We had a reach of 5,871 people with 154 people engaged. Posted on Wednesday 25 June.

*Engaged – number of people who ‘reacted’, commented or shared the post

Key Performance Indicators	Feb 21	Mar-21	Apr-21	May-21	Jun-21
WEB
# Visits to the NRC website	40,200	77,800	39,000	35,400	34,100
E-payments made	12	0	2	9	9
# subscription customers (cumulative)	1,286	1,276	1,278	1,276	1,287
SOCIAL MEDIA (cumulative)
# Twitter followers	1,558	1,563	1,560	1,548	1,555
# NRC Facebook fans	10,200	10,300	10,300	10,400	10,441
# NRC Overall Facebook Reach	211,800	173,800	96,800	145,600	62,800
# NRC Engaged Daily Users	8,283	11,100	5,266	8,796	3,249
# CDEM Facebook fans	21,900	25,200	25,200	25,200	25,271
# CDEM Overall Facebook Reach	262,600	484,900	66,500	36,700	29,300
# CDEM Engaged Daily Users	34,100	53,700	1,625	2,416	1,410
# Instagram followers	1,330	1,337	1,360	1,383	1,399

NOTES:
Mar– increase in visits to website and CDEM Facebook reach due to the tsunami evacuation on 5 March

May –Online payment figures incomplete due to termination of BNZ service.

ENVIROSCHOOLS / EDUCATION

Dune Lakes Events – Humuhumu and Waiparera

On 4 June Biodiversity and Enviroschools staff joined the Waikaretu Marae community and Pouto and Te Kopuru schools at Lake Humuhumu. Students and adults took part in riparian planting, carried out water quality tests, and discovered fish and amphibious plants. On 25 June a similar dune lakes education event was held at Lake Waiparera as part of the Noho Taio o Te Hiku.

Project Pest Control – Whangārei Skills Workshops

On 10 and 11 and 14 and 15 June, two Project Pest Control skills courses were held at Rayonier’s Glenbervie Forest. Te Kura Taumata o Panguru and five Whangārei secondary schools took part in the NCEA-based course centred on biosecurity and biodiversity, including setting traplines. Council’s Biosecurity and Enviroschools teams joined with local industry representatives to deliver the training.

Enviroschools Bronze Status

On 10 June, Cr Jack Craw officiated at Kamo Kids Enviroschools Bronze celebration. The childcare centre has a weekly ngahere programme based at Hodges Park in Kamo, it is using upcycled resources, gardening, composting and is increasing tamariki connections with the environment overall. The centre’s next steps include water conservation and creating a community mara rongoa.

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Enviroschools communities facilitated

During June, Enviroschools Facilitators visited 42 school and early childhood communities.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Regional Communications

During June and early July, several regional communications went out to Northlanders around the work we do including:

Ÿ an eight-page insert in the Northern Advocate to highlight the winners of our recent Whakamānawa ā Taiao – Environmental Awards. These awards recognise kaitiakitanga in action and the efforts of people across Northland to help our Environment thrive;

Ÿ a brochure included with rates notices across the three districts, to explain our rates and the different areas of work our revenue goes in to; and

Ÿ ‘Our Northland’, our quarterly council news which goes into six local papers across the region and is also circulated as an electronic newsletter.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL INFORMATION (LGOIMA) REQUESTS

Total LGOIMAs	June 2019 to June 2020	June 2020 to June 2021
Total LGOIMAs	193	187
Number of LGOIMAs not responded to within 20 working days		7

7.3.7 Customer Service – Community Resilience

TRANSPORT

Regional Land Transport Plan for Northland 2021-2027

The Regional Land Transport Plan for Northland 2021-2027, approved by the Regional Transport Committee on Wednesday 9 June 2021, and by the Northland Regional Council on Tuesday 15 June 2021, was submitted to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency on Monday 28 June 2021.

National Land Transport Fund 2021-2024

On 31 May 2021, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency forwarded an email titled “2021-24 National Land Transport Plan Indicative Funding - Northland Regional Council” detailing their Indicative Investment Levels for Continuous Programmes (Business as Usual) for the Northland Regional Council.

Included in the email was the table below which detailed the funding requested and the indicative funding approved.

Activity class	2021-24 programme bid - requested funding (gross $)	*2021-24 programme - indicative funding approval* (gross $)**	*2018-21 forecast allocation* in August 2018 (gross $)**
Road Safety Promotion	$515,000	$515,000	$480,000
Public Transport Services	$9,197,000	$7,218,000	$5,627,000
Public Transport Infrastructure	$975,000	$975,000	$538,000

The funding categories above are for “Business as Usual” work. They do not require a “business case” to accompany the application. Services and projects included in the above tend to have longer-term financial certainty.

New and/or expanded projects or services less than $2.0m will require an entry-level business case to justify value for money. If approved, will be included in the “Low Cost/Low Risk” funding category, and are reviewed every three years with no certainty of continuation.

New and/or expanded projects or services in excess of $2.0m will require a detailed business case to justify value for money. If approved, will be included in the “Improvements” funding category, and are reviewed every three years with no certainty of continuation.

Rural-based passenger services have, to date, been funded from the "Low Cost/Low Risk" funding category, resulting in them having to be reviewed every three years. However, with the length of time most of these services have been in operation, the need for longer-term funding certainty and their relatively low cost, NRC applied for the required funding under the "Business as Usual" category for the 2021-2027 financial period.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency have subsequently advised that these have been moved back under Low Cost/Low Risk. This has resulted in the variance of funding requested and Indicative Funding Approval for Public Transport Service as depicted in the above table.

Both Road Safety Promotion and Public Transport Infrastructure have provisionally been granted the funding applied for.

It is important to note that the final National Land Transport Programme, as approved by the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency board, will only be known in August/September 2021. The information received on 31 May 2021 is indicative in nature only and is the first step in a long and detailed process.

Draft Regional Public Transport Plan 2021-2031

Due to some last-minute changes to be made to the Draft Regional Public Transport Plan 2021-2031, the Regional Transport Committee (RTC) approved this Plan be tabled at the 11 August 2021 RTC meeting for consideration and approval.

If approved, the Draft Regional Public Transport Plan 2021-2031 will be presented to the 17 August 2021 Northland Regional Council meeting for adoption and public release.

PASSENGER TRANSPORT ADMINISTRATION

*BusLink figures are reported one month in arrears, due to the required information being unavailable at the time of the agenda deadline.

Bus Link stats for May 2021 (revenue ex GST)	Actual	Budget	Variance	Year/Date Actual	Year/Date Budgeted
CityLink Passengers	31,937	30,888	1049	295,098	305,380
CityLink Revenue	$39,032	$41,699	-$2,667	$369,816	$412,263
Mid North Link Passengers	237	156	81	1,986	1,716
Mid North Link Revenue	$876	$780	$96	$7,214	$8,580
Hokianga Link Passengers	146	78	68	1210	858
Hokianga Link Revenue	$782	$543	$239	$6,249	$5,968
Far North Link Passengers	298	611	-313	3,983	6,213
Far North Link Revenue	$996	$1,552	-$556	$10,665	$17,491
Bream Bay Link Passengers	42	24	18	535	288
Bream Bay Link Revenue	$290	$86	$204	$ 3,569	$1,036
Hikurangi Link Passengers	15	24	-9	219	180
Hikurangi Link Revenue	$39	$62	-$23	$538	$530
Whangarei Heads Link Passengers	18	24	-6	86	180
Whangarei Heads Link Revenue	$78	$104	-$26	$362	$782

Total Mobility

	Total Clients	Monthly Actual Expend	Monthly Budgeted Expend	Monthly Variance	Year/Date Actual Expend	Year/Date Budgeted Expend	Annual Variance
May 2021	1316	$25,146	$25,000	$146	$239,067	$275,000	-$35,933

ROAD SAFETY UPDATE

Road Trauma Update

Fatalities this year	Far North	Whangārei	Kaipara	Northland	National
Local roads	2	2	2	6	87
State highways	5	3	6	14	79
TOTAL	7	5	8	20	175

Whilst nationally more crashes have been occurring on local roads, Northland is experiencing in excess of twice the number of fatal crashes occurring on the State Highway network.

Since the May 2021 Council update, there has been a marked increase in the number of fatal crashes in the Kaipara District, particularly on the State Highways.

Driver behaviour and mistakes continue to be key factors in Northland’s crashes.

Of the 20 deaths to date:

· Nine have been drivers,

· Five have been passengers,

· Four have been motorcyclists and

· Two were pedestrians.

Motorcycle Safety - Ride Forever (R4E) Rider Training Update

For the 2020/21 financial year ending June 2021, 168 riders have participated in the R4E rider training programme across Northland.

The breakdown included riders participating in the following courses, totalling 186:

· Bronze Course 52 completed

· Silver Course (intermediate) 77 completed

· Gold Course (advanced) 57 completed

Road Safety Promotion / Media

Advertising themes in the Road Safety Advertising Calendar 2020/21 for the months of June and July are ‘Alcohol, Distractions, Safe Vehicles.’

CUSTOMER SERVICES

Telephone inbound call statistics & enquiries

	June 2021	Year 2020- 21	Target
Call volumes via Customer Services	2,165	28,452
Conversion rate	96.9%	97.2%	>95%
Average wait time	6 sec	6 sec
Calls answered in under 30 sec	95.1%	96.8%	>90%

As more people are choosing to use email, self-service and social media, call volumes have been gradually declining. But, in Northland, it is declining at a slower rate than in urban centres. In the 2020/21 year, an average of 115 external calls per weekday were received by the Customer Services team. Conversion rates, although slightly down on last year, remain well ahead of most councils.

Biosecurity enquiries make up over 20% of all calls and remain our largest volume of new inward enquiries. Consents, maritime and compliance monitoring/hotline comprise 10% each, and calls for other organisations 14%. All other departments make up the remaining 36% of calls, with no individual department receiving more than 5% of enquiries.

Mailroom email processing performance

In June, the inward mailroom system was integrated with Customer Service’s enquiry management system. This allows better tracking of email distribution and provides information on processing of inward enquiries.

Satisfaction monitoring

Ÿ Feedback cards, compliments and complaints

Feedback cards have been included with the tallies for compliments and complaints, as appropriate.

Compliments received	Total
Service provided by a specific person/people Ÿ Customer Services – K Grammer Ÿ Land Management (x2) – Y Bishop & S McKenzie	3
Total compliments recorded	3
Complaints received	Total
Staff or contractor behaviour/attitude Ÿ Customer Services	1
Disagree with decision or process Ÿ Policy & Planning	1
Standard of service provided Ÿ Bus – Citylink Ÿ Hydrology (x2)	3
Total complaints recorded	5

In addition to the one recorded complaint, there were many phone calls about the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) process. Excellent briefing information by the Policy team enabled these calls to be managed with confidence.

The two hydrology complaints received were in relation to data not being available. This was a temporary issue and was quickly resolved.

All complaints have received acknowledgement and been resolved.

Ÿ Resident Survey

The draft survey report was received and has been returned for re-formatting. This will delay the finalised report slightly, and it will be available in late July.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

The Minister of Emergency Management, Hon Kris Faafoi, has approved a re-write of the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act 2002 as part of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Trifecta programme, which is a comprehensive review of the Act, National CDEM Plan and Guide to the CDEM Plan.

Northland CDEM Group and Coordinating Executive Group

The Northland CDEM Group Joint Committee and Northland Coordinating Executive Committee met for their quarterly meeting on 16 June. The agenda included an item on the Northland CDEM multi-agency response debrief to the 5 March tsunami warning. The item presented opportunities for improvement across agencies which will be incorporated into work programmes.

Tsunami Siren Upgrade

As previously reported, the tender process for the Northland Tsunami Siren network replacement has been underway. The Tender Committee have awarded the contract for the upgrade of the tsunami siren network to HSS Engineering Warning System Solutions.

Northland CDEM Group Plan 2021-2026

The draft Northland CDEM Group Plan was approved for public consultation by the Northland CDEM Joint Committee on 16 June. The five-week public consultation commenced on 21 June.

Northland Lifelines Group

The Northland Lifelines Group met on 11 June. The Group agreed on the work programme moving forward, infrastructure plan reviews, feedback into the national Trifecta programme, and feedback on the changes to the Act which affect the Lifelines Utilities sector. Agreement was also reached to include a Climate Change risk assessment for Lifeline Utilities into the work programme. The scope and funding to support the study are being developed.

Waka Kotahi

Representatives from the Northland CDEM Group staff attended and supported a regional Waka Kotahi multi-agency emergency exercise on 14 June. Other agencies represented included NZ Police, Fire and Emergency NZ, roading contractors, and the Northland Transportation Alliance.

NEMA Induction

Mana Wright and Evania Arani both attended a National Induction course for Civil Defence Emergency Management Advisors in Wellington, hosted by NEMA, in late June.

Shared Services Arrangements

Service Level Agreements for CDEM Shared Services with each of the three territorial councils are being reviewed and updated, together with updated annual work programmes and budget agreements.

MARITIME

Maritime have 54 incidents currently being managed, mostly concerned with derelict or abandoned vessels, and illegal occupation of moorings. A particular area of interest is Totara North in Whangaroa Harbour where 12 vessels are being actively managed, and one sunk. The owners have organised recovery.

The Harbourmaster assisted Maritime NZ running the annual On-Scene Commanders Oil Spill course in Auckland. The Maritime Manager attended the Recreational Boating Fund meeting in Wellington.

The Waikare has been slipped in Whangarei and is undergoing its annual maintenance, including a four-yearly survey.

The annual self-assessments for the Port and Harbour Marine Safety Code for Whangarei and the Bay of Islands have been completed, and a peer review is expected at the beginning of next year. The Pilotage Manuals for both harbours are also under review. The Harbourmaster’s Directions have also been updated, which detail specific advice for shipping.

Recruitment has continued for the two vacant Maritime positions, with one filled in Ōpua this month, and one ongoing.

Various buoys and beacons have been repaired following some very high tides and storms. However apart from a few vessels dragging, there were no mooring failures over this period. One vessel that dragged in the Bay of Islands resulted in an injured person requiring rescuing. Maritime staff salvaged his vessel a couple of days later.

Attachments/Ngā tapirihanga

Nil

[1] The Bill describes Te Oranga o te Taiao as incorporating: “a) the health of the natural environment; and b) the intrinsic relationship between iwi and hapu and te taiao; and c) the interconnectedness of all parts of the natural environment; and d) the essential relationship between the health of the natural environment and its capacity to sustain all life”.

[2] Whilst the Bill refers to Te Tiriti o Waitangi the accompanying Parliamentary Paper notes that this strengthened requirement will be realised through participatory rights for tangata whenua in preparing NBA plans and Regional Spatial Strategies and the expectation that iwi management plans will be used in the preparation of NBA plans.

TITLE:	Confirmation of Minutes - Council Meeting 15 June 2021, Extraordinary Council Meeting 22 June 2021 and Extraordinary Council Meeting 7 July 2021
ID:
From:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager
Authorised by:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager, on 14 July 2021

TITLE:	Receipt of Action Sheet
ID:
From:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager
Authorised by:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager, on 12 July 2021

No.	Option	Advantages	Disadvantages
1	Adopt the Initial Proposal	· Allows council to progress the representation review process and meet the requirements and timeframes set in the Local Electoral Act 2001.	· None apparent.
2	Do no adopt the Initial Proposal	· None apparent. The formal consultation process will allow the community to inform council’s thinking which could refine the proposal through the deliberations process.	· A delay in progressing the representation review with a risk of council not meeting the 31 August 2021 timeframe as set in the Local Electoral Act 2001.

No.	Option	Advantages	Disadvantages
1	Council adopts Ngā Taumata o te Moana and Ngā Taumata o te Moana Implementation Plan	Council has a clear strategic direction for NRC’s response to climate change, reducing risks associated with climate change governance and providing leadership across the region.	There are no known disadvantages to adopting the Strategy and Implementation Plan.
2	Council does not adopt Ngā Taumata o te Moana and Ngā Taumata o te Moana Implementation Plan	There are no known advantages to not adopting the Strategy and Implementation Plan. Council has already set budget to deliver the majority of projects identified in the Implementation Plan.	Council will lack cross-council integration on climate change, resulting in ad hoc programmes and lack of strategic direction. Council fails to provide regional leadership, and lack of formal climate change programme increases organisational risk.

No.	Option	Advantages	Disadvantages
1	Council approves the whole Operational Plan	Implementation of the rules and activities can proceed under the revised plan.	Nil
2	Council may request amendments on the grounds that the Operational Plan is inconsistent with the Pest Plan	Improved consistency with the Pest Plan is achieved.	The process for their confirmation by council will cause delays in implementation.

TITLE:	2021 Representation Arrangements Review Initial Proposal
ID:
From:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager
Authorised by Group Manager:	Ben Lee, GM - Strategy, Governance and Engagement, on 20 July 2021

TITLE:	'Ngā Taumata o te Moana' - NRC Climate Change Strategy and Implementation Plan
ID:
From:	Matt De Boer, Climate Change Resilience Coordinator
Authorised by Group Manager:	Jonathan Gibbard, Group Manager - Environmental Services, on 07 July 2021

TITLE:	Biosecurity Operational Plan 2021-2022
ID:
From:	Don McKenzie, Biosecurity Manager
Authorised by Group Manager:	Jonathan Gibbard, Group Manager - Environmental Services, on 07 July 2021

TITLE:	Appointment to Investment and Property Subcommittee
ID:
From:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager
Authorised by Group Manager:	Ben Lee, GM - Strategy, Governance and Engagement, on

TITLE:	Natural and Built Environment Bill - Exposure Draft
ID:
From:	Justin Murfitt, Strategic Policy Specialist
Authorised by Group Manager:	Ben Lee, GM - Strategy, Governance and Engagement, on 20 July 2021

TITLE:	CEO Recruitment - Job Description and Person Specification
ID:
From:	Beryl Steele, Human Resources Manager
Authorised by Group Manager:	Bruce Howse, Group Manager - Corporate Excellence, on 19 July 2021

TITLE:	Health and Safety Report
ID:
From:	Kelcie Mills, Health and Safety Advisor
Authorised by Group Manager:	Bruce Howse, Group Manager - Corporate Excellence, on 19 July 2021

TITLE:	Chair's Report to Council
ID:
From:	Penny Smart, Chair
Authorised by Group Manager:	Penny Smart, Chair, on 14 July 2021

Date	Addressed To	Subject
01.06.21	Hon Michael Wood Minister of Transport	Follow up letter following visit to NRC by Minister Wood.
01.06.21	John Levers	Complaint by John Levers to Serious Fraud Office.
14.06.21	Benoit Marcenac and Mark Bogle Directors Marsden Maritime Holdings	MMH Directors
16.06.21	Shaun Clarke and Andy Finch Far North District Council	Request for FNDC to establish a wastewater committee for Otiria-Moerewa.
18.06.21	Maxine Shortland Grant Conaghan Dr Derek Gibbons Ian Leigh-Mackenzie Murray Bain Dr Benjamin Pittman Noma Shepherd	Queen’s Birthday Honours
22.06.21	Hon Grant Robertson Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure	Meeting with NRC, Northland Inc. and Whangarei District Council 11 June 2021.
29.06.21	Nicole Anderson Chair Northland Inc.	Letter of congratulations to Nicole Anderson on appointment as Chair of Northland Inc.

TITLE:	Receipt of Committee Minutes
ID:
From:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager
Authorised by:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager, on 19 July 2021

TITLE:	Working Party Updates and Chairpersons' Briefings
ID:
From:	Chris Taylor, Governance Support Manager
Authorised by Group Manager:	Ben Lee, GM - Strategy, Governance and Engagement, on date 20 July 2021

Item No.	Item Issue	Reasons/Grounds
9.1	Confirmation of Confidential Minutes - Council Meeting 15 June 2021	The public conduct of the proceedings would be likely to result in disclosure of information, as stated in the open section of the meeting.
9.2	Receipt of Committee Confidential Minutes	The public conduct of the proceedings would be likely to result in disclosure of information, as stated in the open section of the meeting.
9.3	Human Resources Report	The public conduct of the proceedings would be likely to result in disclosure of information, the withholding of which is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of deceased natural persons s7(2)(a).
9.4	Purchase of Whangārei CBD Properties	The public conduct of the proceedings would be likely to result in disclosure of information, the withholding of which is necessary to enable council to carry out, without prejudice or disadvantage, commercial activities s7(2)(h) and the withholding of which is necessary to enable council to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations (including commercial and industrial negotiations) s7(2)(i).
9.5	NIWA Kingfish RAS Project	The public conduct of the proceedings would be likely to result in disclosure of information, the withholding of which is necessary to enable council to carry out, without prejudice or disadvantage, commercial activities s7(2)(h) and the withholding of which is necessary to enable council to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations (including commercial and industrial negotiations) s7(2)(i).