A group of residents has been left feeling invisible after Ōpōtiki District Council turned down a contractor's offer to help seal their road because councillors thought no-one lived on it.
Delta Contracting's gravel screening operation on Amokura Rd has been praised by its neighbours. Photo: Charlotte Jones / LDR
The decision to decline Delta Contracting's offer to partly fund the work has left a sour taste for the contractor and the residents.
Councillors refused the offer, against staff advice, as they believed no one lived on Amokura Rd and the contractor was only offering to partly fund the sealing to manage dust and gain its resource consent.
However, there are three homes on the road, and Delta Contracting director Paul Blennerhassett said the offer was only intended to be a goodwill gesture. He said sealing the road offered no advantage to his gravel screening operation.
"I've worked closely with council since 2011 and it was hurtful to see some of the comments that were made," he said.
"I get on well with the staff but some of the comments made by elected members really didn't need to be said. If the road is sealed or unsealed, there's no impact on us. This was really meant to be a goodwill gesture for the residents of the road."
Delta Contracting had originally approached the council to see if it would be willing to share, 60/40, the cost of sealing 700 metres of Amokura Rd - estimated to cost up to $100,000.
The council has a loan-funded budget for situations such as this, but there has been limited uptake in recent years. It did enter into part-funded sealing projects with two other contractors earlier this year.
Blennerhassett said his company only pulled gravel from the river every three months and carted material to be used in the harbour construction up the road around six times a day.
During this time, the company wets the road to manage the dust, something Blennerhassett said was far cheaper than sealing the road, and far easier, as tar seal dried quickly and could therefore kick up more dust from truck wheels.
"At the end of the day it will only benefit residents and we wanted to do it for them as a goodwill gesture," he said.
"It's no skin off our nose they said no, but to turn around and make it look like we were trying to rip ratepayers off is not on."
Blennerhassett said he had a focus on hiring local people who were unemployed. Since Covid-19 his staff had grown from 18 to close to 30, and this would not change despite this upsetting episode, he said.
Residents of Amokura Rd have also come out swinging against the council's decision and in support of Blennerhassett.
Moira Anstis said on "behalf of the three houses that don't exist" that, although residents had not been pushing for the road to be sealed, they would have been quite pleased if it had.
She said residents did not have a bad word to say about the contractor and he was always careful to keep the dust down.
"When they are carting metal from the river they pass through our farm," Anstis said.
"So, they are always wetting the road continuously. So, if anything, it made things better for us because now there is no dust and usually at this time of the year our road is very dusty. The contractor has gone above and beyond to make sure there is no dust for us. He's been treated very unfairly by council."
Anstis said she had never been approached by anyone from the council to see if residents would like the road sealed or if they found dust a problem.
"The councillor that said we don't exist actually cycles down our road," she said.
"So, you would think he would have seen our letterboxes."
Mayor Lyn Riesterer said yesterday that she could only stand by the decision that was made by the council.
She noted there were two council departments involved in the matter and there was nothing in the report given to councillors to say the sealing was a goodwill gesture or that there were homes on the road.
"I was intrigued to see councillors went against recommendations of council staff, but that is the democratic process," she said.
"We made a decision based on the information we were given."
Riesterer also felt councillors' comments had been taken out of context.
Councillor Barry Howe said it was regrettable residents and the contractor were upset but it was nothing personal and he would not have approved the road sealing in any case.
Howe said if there had been more houses on the road, he would have approved the sealing but there were people up the coast "screaming out" for their roads to be sealed.
"Some of the roads have 18 or 20 houses on them and it's about prioritising," he said.
"It's nothing against the contractor, he's a good guy but we have to be fair. Not a personal issue but just showing the community we're fair-minded and there are places that are more in need."
Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.
