Te Tai o Poutini Plan will combine the West Coast's three district plans into one updated document. Photo: LDR/supplied
The cost estimates for the West Coast's new combined district plan have blown out to more than $8 million, and councils have no power to rein it in.
The process of rolling the region's three district plans into one updated document Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) - as directed by the Government - is nearing the end of the hearings stage.
But the councillors and iwi meeting on Tuesday morning, as the TTPP committee, heard that expenditure on contractors and consultants will exceed the budget this year.
And as the hearing Commissioners write up their recommendation reports with a June deadline, their costs have already overshot the budget for the entire year.
TTPP project manager Jo Armstrong told the meeting over 80 percent of the annual budget for consultants had been used for services related to the hearings, such as writing Rights of Reply, expert conferencing, preparing technical reports and updating mapping.
"Although this work is slowing down with most hearings completed, some expenditure will be ongoing as contractors continue to provide general planning and project management," she reported.
Income to cover TTPP costs is funded by the West Coast Regional Council - also by government directive - by way of a regional rate and a loan.
The now-notified proposed plan has cost ratepayers $6.5 million since work began in 2019, and by September this year, when its status becomes a 'decision', the bill will be $8.491 million, Armstrong estimated.
The new estimate caused general dismay around the TTPP table.
"How did we get it so wrong?" Regional Councillor Brett Cummings asked.
"With the estimates for the Commissioners there should have been alarm bells going off months ago."
The actual costs were more than three times the estimates, he noted.
"Who signed off on all this ... some one's got to stand up and put their face out and get eggs thrown at it."
Iwi representative Paul Madgwick (Te Runanga o Makaawhio, Ngati Mahaki) said six years ago the TTPP cost estimate was $5 million.
"That was astounding enough - how did this gallop away on us?"
The budgets had let the committee down, Madgwick said.
Legal and mediations costs over the next few years would see the bill soar even further, he warned.
"At the end of the day, the ratepayers carry the can and it's a heavy load to carry. It might have been cheaper for each district to do its own plan."
The $5 million figure had never been a set budget, but a "figure plucked from the air" - an estimate of the amount of the loan that would be needed, chair Rex Williams said.
Greymouth mayor Tania Gibson queried costs of $100,000 for the Commissioners' food and accommodation, as they travelled around the Coast.
Regional Council chief executive Darryl Lew told the meeting the council had to source expert and independent advice when the Commissioners asked for it.
"We get a quote and hold them to it, but we do not have the power to say, 'no because we can't afford it'."
The Commissioners were paid a fixed rate for their time, Lew said.
"We don't have the ability to limit the hours they spend writing, or control those costs - that goes into the natural justice area - their ability to exercise their function."
It was exceedingly difficult to limit costs in what was essentially a judicial process, which almost had a life of its own, Lew said.
Regional and District council staff did not have the expertise needed to do the work of the consultants, he told the meeting.
Buller District Council chief executive Simon Pickford agreed.
"When I worked for the Dunedin City Council, we followed the exact same pattern, we had to bring in outside experts - that's just what you have to do."
Greymouth mayor Tania Gibson asked if anything could be done to speed up the plan process for people dealing with vague maps and uncertainty over zoning rules as the plan moved towards completion.
"This is a disaster - they've got a lot of money involved and now you say it'll be September [when the decision stage is reached], there must be a way to make things better for them."
Lew said the process could not be altered, in law.
But the zones in a notified plan did have legal standing, he said.
"Your (district council) staff can assign weight to the plan and those zones … above your existing plan."
That would not give absolute certainty, but an application could be made to give weight to zoning rules favourable to the developers, he told the mayor.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
