Hastings District Council will hold an extraordinary meeting on Thursday to decide on a consultation process with the local community regarding Council’s involvement in purchasing cyclone-damaged Category 3 properties, and the associated Government regional funding offer.
The Council, along with other Hawke’s Bay local authorities, has been in discussions with Central Government to arrive at a Cyclone support package that enables the region’s communities to move forward with their lives.
The funding package secures $556m Crown funding for the region, including a capped Crown contribution of $92.5m towards Category 3 voluntary residential property purchases – to match a proposed Council contribution that Council has sought to limit to $50m.
Hastings Mayor, Sandra Hazlehurst said the proposal stemmed from complex negotiations over several weeks, and was about ensuring people’s safety and security and giving certainty to impacted communities so they could move on with their lives.
“The negotiation teams have been working extremely hard to get the best outcome for Hastings residents, as well as other communities around the region,” she said.
“We now need to go to the community to get feedback on Council changing its Long Term Plan to allow us to take on this new role of voluntary residential property purchases.”
The date for consultation to begin will be decided at Thursday’s meeting.
