Commitment to flood protection for Snodgrass Road reiterated

The West Coast Regional Council wants to categorically assure the Westport community that Council is committed to building structural flood protection at Snodgrass Road, and the money pledged by local businesses last year will be shared evenly between Carters Beach and Snodgrass Road.

Changes to the Westport Flood Protection Scheme were announced recently aimed at bringing costs down to make flood protection more affordable and deliverable. This included the proposal that all of the $1.8 million pledged by local businesses was to be used for flood protection for Carters Beach. The planned Special Consultative Procedure signals that Snodgrass Road funding would be considered through a future consultative process.

When the money was pledged in mid-2025, it was intended to be used for flood protection for both Carters Beach and Snodgrass Road near Westport as they were omitted from government funding via Resilient Westport.

West Coast Regional Council Chief Executive Darryl Lew says the wording of the summary of the Special Consultative Procedure communications unfortunately created the impression that Snodgrass Road wasn’t going to be protected from future flooding and all the business pledges would be applied to Carters Beach.

“This isn’t the case and I apologise for the confusion. The Regional Council is categorically committed to providing physical flood protection for Snodgrass Road and Carters Beach. This is all one scheme.

“Our goal in using the pledged money now is to avoid borrowing and incurring interest payments which the people of Westport and Snodgrass Road would have to pay. This is primarily a decision based on the wise use of cashflow. Our plan is to replenish the fund closer to construction at Snodgrass Road. We will be managing our cashflows so that half of the money can be allocated to Carters Beach works and half to Snodgrass.

“What we are working with now is trying to plan the sequencing of work cost-effectively and recognising key interdependencies. This means Snodgrass Road work will come a little later than the other stopbanks. This is something that has always been communicated with the Snodgrass Road community - that the Snodgrass Road work would follow the main scheme and Carters Beach.

“Carters Beach is integral to the main scheme due to hydraulic modelling showing that the flow paths created by the stopbanks on the Westport side of the Buller River would reach Carters Beach.  It will not be possible to obtain consent for the Upper and Lower Buller stopbanks without including Carters Beach. 

Mr Lew says Council regrets the confusion this may have caused and not having spoken directly with the Snodgrass Road residents or the businesses involved before the proposed change in approach was presented publicly.

“We got the communication wrong, and I apologise to all involved. The businesses that made significant commitments to support flood protection for their community and should have heard directly from us before any proposal affecting those pledges was discussed publicly. We also realise we should have spoken with Snodgrass Road residents before sharing the details of the planned project reset.

“I am undertaking now to speak personally with the businesses involved, along with West Coast Regional Council chair Colin Smith, and Buller Constituency councillors Mark McIntyre and Chris Coll, to reassure them that the monies will ultimately be used as they intended. I have arranged to meet some representatives from Snodgrass Road this week also. We are working on our communications protocols to ensure there is a better working relationship with these key partners and stakeholders and that we improve the way we communicate with them in the future,” says Mr Lew.

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For further information please contact:

Resilient Westport Communications team media@resilientwestport.co.nz