The Government has announced another $16.8 million severe weather event recovery funding, with $4.55 million coming to Hawke’s Bay.

Making the announcement, Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell said: “We are committed to supporting our councils and communities as they continue to rebuild and recover from the devastating impacts of last year’s severe weather events. We have been clear we want the recovery projects to be completed faster, and we want communities to have certainty about their future.

Here is how the Hawke’s Bay funds will be allocated:

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council: $2.18m for additional expertise to speed up Wairoa, Pakowhai, and Pōrangahau flood protection, as well as additional expertise for community engagement and flood modelling for a range of projects.

Hastings District Council: $1.47m to speed up Hastings roading delivery programme.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council: $700,000 to speed up roading recovery and provide flood modelling.

Wairoa District Council: $200,000 to speed up the Te Reinga bridge replacement project.

Roading was the big winner.

HB’s various leaders issues suitably grateful statements.

Said Hastings Mayor Hazlehurst: “In Hastings we expect this funding to add further resources to deliver on our roading recovery programme, which ultimately will help us get our primary sector and overall economy back on its feet sooner.”

Central Hawke’s Bay Mayor, Alex Walker commented: “We have $129m of our roading recovery that’s currently unfunded – so this isn’t going to be the answer to our prayers, but every bit of support helps.”

Regional Council Chair Hinewai Ormsby said: “The additional support will help speed up progress on the urgent flood mitigation work we have underway in partnership with Government.

“We appreciate people in the affected communities of Wairoa, Whirinaki, Waiohiki, Omahu, Pākowhai and Pōrangahau who are waiting for these projects to be finished so they can have more certainty about the way forward. We hope this will help reassure them that we are doing everything we can to complete the projects as soon as possible.”

Adding context was HB Regional Recovery Agency Chair, Blair O’Keeffe: “Key to our success will be maintaining a credible partnership with Central Government by remaining cognisant of the fact they too have fiscal constraints to work within and ensuring as a region we continue to match our recovery priorities with the Government’s programmes and future funding pathways.”