Unconfirmed

MINUTES OF A meeting of the Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee

Date:                          Wednesday 11 May 2011

Time:                          9.00am

Venue:

Council Chamber Hawke's Bay Regional Council 159 Dalton Street NAPIER

Present:                     K Rose - Chairman

A J Dick

E McGregor

L Remmerswaal

C Scott

E von Dadelszen

F Wilson

M Apatu

In Attendance:          A Newman – Chief Executive

M Adye – Group Manager Asset Management

L Hooper – Executive Assistant & Acting Administration Manager

C Leckie – Biosecurity Manager

S Chandler – Executive Assistant

1. WELCOME/APOLOGIES/NOTICES

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Gilbertson and Kirton, and from Maori Committee representative Adrian Manuel.

McGregor/Wilson

CARRIED

2. CONFLICT OF INTEREST DECLARATIONS

There were no conflict of interest declarations.

3. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF THE ASSET Management and Biosecurity Committee held on 9 March 2011

AMB1/11

Resolution Minutes of the Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee held on Wednesday, 9 March 2011, a copy having been circulated prior to the meeting, were taken as read and confirmed as an accurate record of the meeting. Scott/McGregor CARRIED

4.      Matters Arising from Minutes of the Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee held on Wednesday 9 March 2011

There were no matters arising from the minutes.

5.	Actions from Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee meetings
	Mr Adye provided the Committee with an update on the status of the Action Items.
AMB2/11	Resolution That the Committee receives the report “Actions from Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee Meetings”. 1. Scott/von Dadelszen 2. CARRIED

6.	Consideration of General Business Items
	Peer review of the Serjeant Report for the Cape Coast (Remmerswaal)

7.	Land Management Work Programme 2011/12
	Mr Adye provided an overview of the proposed programme, which has been developed on the basis of the current year’s work programme as presented to Council in November 2010, and with the idea that 2011/12 may be a ‘transitional’ year while strategy is being developed and tested to increase Council influence in land use change in preparation for 2012-22 LTP. Mr Adye noted that the words missing from the table on page 14, relating to Taharua catchment are “Work with policy team to complete Regional Plan change process in accordance with their timeline. Councillors raised concerns in relation to clarity around how the goals are going to be achieved, and documenting actual measurements of success or milestones. The Coastal Restoration workstreams were noted as resource constraints means that Council can only support active groups.  Councillor Scott expressed a desire that this activity be extended to include cliff faces and management of those.  Mr Adye advised that these were not currently a focus for Council.
AMB3/11	Resolutions The Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee recommend that Council: 1.      Agrees that the decisions to be made are not significant under the criteria contained in Council’s adopted policy on significance and that Council can exercise its discretion under Sections 79(1)(a) and 82(3) of the Local Government Act 2002 and make decisions on this issue without conferring directly with the community and persons likely to be affected by or to have an interest in the decision due to the nature and significance of the issue to be considered and decided. 2.      Approves the proposed 2011/12 work programme for the Land Management section while noting that the programme may be impacted by the need to resource the development of new programmes to increase Council’s influence in improving the economic and environmental performance of the primary productive sector. von Dadelszen/Wilson CARRIED

8.	Biosecurity Operational Plans 2011/2012
	Mr Leckie provided Councillors with a brief update on the status of current Biosecurity operations, specifically Argentine Ants and Urban Possum Control, and an overview of the proposed Operational Plans for 2011/12.
AMB4/11	Resolutions The Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee recommend that Council: 1.     Agrees that the decisions to be made are not significant under the criteria contained in Council’s adopted policy on significance and that Council can exercise its discretion under Sections 79(1)(a) and 82(3) of the Local Government Act 2002 and make decisions on this issue without conferring directly with the community and persons likely to be affected by or to have an interest in the decision due to the nature and significance of the issue to be considered and decided. 2.     Adopts the: 2.1. Animal Pest Operational Plan 2011/12 2.2. Plant Pest Operational Plan 2011/12 2.3. Phytosanitary Operational Plan 2011/12        In accordance with the requirements of the Biosecurity Act 1993. Scott/Dick CARRIED

9.	Infrastructure Insurance
	Mr Adye provided Councillors with an overview of the current infrastructure asset insurance situation and foreshadowed possible changes that may be prudent to be made in the future, as he expected that the cost of insurance would rise substantially over the next 12 months. Mr Adye advised that initial advice from council’s insurance advisor was that no increase in commercial insurance was available to cover the shortfall left by the inability of LAPP to provide cover until after 1 July 2011.  The inability of LAPP to provide cover means that Council is particularly exposed to damage to its live tree edge protection as this was not covered by commercial insurance.
AMB5/11	Resolution 1. That the Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee receives the report and notes the advice provided by the Local Authority Protection Programme, the associated increase in financial risk to Council as a result of this advice, and the enquiries being made by staff to determine what options are available to Council to mitigate that risk. Scott/von Dadelszen CARRIED

10.	Regional Pest Management Strategy Review
	Mr Leckie provided an overview of this first step in the Strategy review process. He advised that two themes featured in the submissions received. This item was left on the table prior to adjourning for morning tea, to be picked up again after presentation of the Update on Recent flood events.

The Committee adjourned at 10.15am and reconvened at 10.30am.

11.	Update on Recent Flood Events
	Mr Adye provided a PowerPoint presentation and overview of the recent rain event and the resulting damage. Councillors discussed various aspects including: · An estimate of costs to Council has not yet been ascertained however it was agreed to have a rough estimate and update at end of month Council meeting.  Mr Adye also suggested an economic assessment from Sean Bevin. · With regard to who is responsible for what damage Mr Newman advised that Regional Council will take the lead when there is any confusion. · Mr Adye noted that Council assets we not concentrated in the worst affected areas.  · HBRC is primarily focussed on working with East Coast Rural Support Trust in supporting individual farmers.  · Council is working with the TLAs to assist in ensuring Resource management issues - such as disposal of slip debris, can be dealt with quickly and efficiently. · It was noted that Mr Yule - Mayor of Hastings had secured hire diggers at a reduced rate to help with the clean up in both coastal and farming communities. · Mr Adye said he expected there to be an uptake from farmers to plant trees and they would be looking to Council for any assistance. · Responding to a question on support and dealing with Trauma - Mr Newman noted that following this event Civil Defence Recovery Managers are established in each of the TLAs and are responsible for dealing with this phase of recovery.  Support agencies are also part of this process.
AMB6/11	Resolution: 1.   That the Committee receives the report. Wilson /Scott CARRIED

10.	Regional Pest Management Strategy Review
	Mr Leckie provided an overview of this first step in the Strategy review process. He advised that two themes featured in the submissions received. This item was left on the table prior to adjourning for morning tea, to be picked up again after presentation of the Update on Recent flood events. Councillors reviewed all the submissions individually.  It was agreed that once the discussion document draft is produced, Council will have the opportunity to review submissions against it.
AMB7/11	Resolution: 1.      That the Asset Management and Biosecurity Committee receives the report and notes that: 1.1.      The Regional Pest Management Strategy discussion document received 25 submissions on a range of pests with approximately half the submissions representing two clear themes noted above. 1.2.      The issues raised in the submissions will be considered by staff in the preparation of a draft Regional Pest Management Strategy. 1.3.      A letter has been written to each submitter thanking them for their submission and advising them that a copy of the proposed Regional Pest Management Strategy will be forwarded to them once it has been prepared. Wilson /Scott CARRIED

12.

General Business

Serjeant Report for the Haumoana - Te Awanga Coastal Issues.  Mr Adye advised that there has been a further delay to the delivery of the report.  This s due to one of the peer reviewers having been quite severely affected by the Christchurch earthquake.  However we believe their response is due shortly Taharua Visit - Chairman Rose thanked and commended staff for a successful visit to the Taharua catchment last week.  All the work by staff is very much appreciated.

Closure:

There being no further business the Chairman declared the meeting closed at 11.50am on Wednesday 11 May 2011.

Signed as a true and correct record.

DATE: ................................................               CHAIRMAN: ...............................................