Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

Elected members were joined by planning staff and stormwater staff on a tour of the city to view first hand some of the flooding hot spots plaguing residents in torrential downpours.

It's even more complex an issue than we could imagine. Inadequate pipe sizes, residential infill, blocked cesspits, blocked grates, badly designed grates, not enough fall to outlet, high tides blocking outlets, badly designed driveways, excavated sections, and building below street level were just some of the causes of flooding we viewed.
Everyone in the building development industry – including various Councils – have contributed it seems. Creation of rules to solve one problem creates another problem.
For instance, the rules about boundary distances, daylighting and height allowances were supposed to make good living conditions for all residents. Unfortunately, this meant in some developments the developer couldn't get the number of units required to make it a profitable venture so a simple answer was to excavate.

The rules say you can't go up, but are silent on digging down. Then you have a potential pool area because the outdoor area is surrounded by concrete below street level. So to stop the water pouring off the street you build a hump at the top of the driveway which then acts as a great spillway into the property once the street overflows due to the blocked cesspits, high tide etc. Plus, once trapped, the water can't get away and has to be pumped.

Then Councils of yesteryear allowed houses to be built on overland flow paths for stormwater run-off.
We visited one Otumoetai property built years ago and which floods regularly. The neighbour has now filled in the section behind effectively blocking the flow path, so in addition to a river running down the driveway during downpours over the years, there is now a lake formed at the bottom of the section where the garage is. Council will be deliberating on solutions to the stormwater issue next week.

As the latest flooding occurred the day after submissions finished, a special round of late submissions will be heard on Wednesday at 1pm with five flooding victims scheduled to address Council. These will be representative and all elected members are aware of the seriousness of the issue and hopefully recognise the priority that must be given to funding essential work – even if it means dropping off or delaying other planned projects. In my view the three waters – water, wastewater and stormwater are the first functions of a Council. Everything else follows.

We received an email from Tauranga resident John Maunder about weather facts. Included was a summary of Tauranga's rainfall during the past 120 years. There's little change in the overall trend according to his records, although it doesn't record intensity. In 1962 Tauranga received 2000mm of rain – normally it's about 60 per cent of that. In 1914, 1915, 1916 just under 2000mm fell. In January 1912, 530mm was recorded and in January 2012 about 350mm fell. So there's a flooding problem to which we (the human race) contributed significantly by removing natural soakage and replacing it with intensified building.

Interesting viewing
As an aside it was interesting viewing some of the older houses built around some of the low spots at the Mount. They were raised on their foundations but newer homes built adjoining them were on concrete floors on excavated ground level. Some of it was not very clever and a simple observation of the site should have alerted the building brains trust that flooding was at least a possibility. We got an entirely different perspective viewing from the extra height of the bus as opposed to a street level view.
A wide ranging discussion was had on Baycourt at a workshop to discuss options and its future purpose and function. No decisions, these will come through deliberations to the annual plan next week. Baycourt will be on at 1pm on Tuesday. This will include policy, funding and direction. We discussed options for its function, availability, subsidies and usage. I won't elaborate here because it was an ideas discussion and staff will be bringing back an options report from which decisions can be made. Certainly with our population more than doubling since Baycourt was built there is increased pressure on its availability. We were told 40 per cent of its use was dance, 21 per cent music and 17 per cent musical theatre. 10 per cent of shows sold out, 18 per cent were 80 per cent sold out and 36 per cent less than 50 per cent sold out. The theatre seats about 600 people and ratepayers subsidise it to the tune of about $2million.

An obvious solution
One obvious solution seems to be spreading out its availability over seven days by demand pricing. Prime time is Friday and Saturday nights. Mondays, Tuesdays not in demand mean it sits there largely unused. The previous manager of Baycourt, who is also president of Friends of Baycourt and Tauranga Musical Theatre had told Council at Annual Plan submissions he supported Baycourt moving to the new Council Controlled Organisation, Bay Leisure and Events Ltd so that option will be in the mix too. But I warned that by moving Baycourt out of Council we would lose Baycourt's contribution to Council's standing overhead costs which would require making up from an increased rate. So you stand to gain on one hand, but guaranteed to lose on the other. Watch this space.
Bob Clarkson addressed elected members on his views on the Government's proposed solution to affordable housing. It's all Council's fault according to Mr Clarkson. Council is always the last man standing once the developer has done his thing. Witness the ‘Leaky Homes' disaster.

Locally, we have a decision to make to take over a private water supply up at Boscabel in Ohauiti. The developer is long gone and original residents have mostly sold. Now the new residents wish to join the city reticulated water supply. Nothing wrong with that, you might say, as its only 77 properties. But they weren't planned for. Mr Clarkson says he can build more than 2000 houses at Tauriko and he will provide the infrastructure required and build half of the houses with three bedrooms and double garage at under $300,000. That would be great provided he doesn't leave the rest of the city's ratepayers with a ticking time bomb of potential liability.

This week's mindbender – 'A critic is someone who knows the way but can't drive the car.” Anonymous – but I could put a few locals' names to it.