Edgecumbe Service Delivery

The Whakatane District Council is disappointed with recent media reports relating to the handling of Edgecumbe sewage faults.

Contrary to these reports the Council attended to all faults, within the set time frames. The affected residents were kept informed of the course of action the Council was taking at all times.

Some of the disappointment with the media noted above relates to a poor reflection of the commitment of Council staff working behind the scenes to ensure the effects of these types of events are worked through as quickly as possible. Many like incidents require attention well into the night, with council and supporting staff working tirelessly to ensure normal services are restored as quickly as possible. This can in extreme circumstances be for days on end, as seen recently with the collapsed sewer main in Hinemoa Street. The disappointment is the media chose to show little regard for reporting these efforts.

The Council’s Chief Executive Diane Turner says the Council is very aware of the sewage problems in Edgecumbe, particularly when there are heavy rains.

“We take all fault calls seriously and especially sewage faults which have wider public health safety implications. We always endeavour to respond to such faults within an hour of the report being logged with either Customer Services or our after-hours service. Sewage faults are a priority response incident type.”

Ms Turner says the initial report of an overflow due to heavy rains was received on 30 April and a repair team was immediately dispatched to the site. On assessing the fault, the team determined that there was too much free-flowing stormwater to deal with the problem immediately. The team secured the site and attended to the other faults in the area and returned at an agreed time later when the water levels had subsided. They cleaned up and disinfected the affected area at this time.

Between the 1st and 9th May 2008, a number of sewage faults occurred in Edgecumbe and were attended to. They followed the heavy rains and subsequent stormwater seeping into the sewerage system. In all cases, council teams were dispatched and attended to the faults without delay.

Ms Turner says the Edgecumbe sewerage system has significant legacy issues associated with the 1987 earthquake – some made worse with the continued subsidence of the land in this area. The Council is currently investigating options for the Edgecumbe sewerage system to address them. These are complex issues, and require a full system review. Funding has been allocated in the 2008/09 Annual Plan to support these investigations, and extensive consultation with the community is planned early next year as part of the 2009/19 LTCCP programme. In addition, some preliminary discussions has been undertaken with the Edgecumbe Community Board.

Mowing

Ms Turner also says the Council recently engaged a Contracts Officer to supervise the Council’s smaller contracts such as vegetation control and mowing. In the three months that the Council has been managing the Urban and Rural Vegetation Control Contracts, this is the first complaint of this nature that our Contracts Officer has heard of. Only three complaints have been reported to the Council regarding Edgecumbe during this period and none of these were related to the complaint reported in the media.

An audit of the Edgecumbe area was completed late last month and found that the work was being undertaken to the agreed levels of service in the contract.

Regarding the comments about the contractors, leaving damp areas without being mown, Ms Turner says it is no secret that Edgecumbe is a damp area and holds water. The mowing contractor may start an area and then stop, because an area is too wet and boggy to mow.

Playgrounds

Tagging and vandalism are constant problems in the District and are not only specific to Edgecumbe. The Council continues to look for community support to address tagging and vandalism. Monthly inspections are carried out on all playgrounds and any damage or repairs identified as a result are carried out by staff as soon as possible after either being inspected or reported.

Ms Turner says all complaints the Council is made aware of relating to playgrounds are attended to as they arise. Any staff working in the area will also identify any issues and report these for action.

“It is not unusual that staff on other duties will notice issues such as graffiti and will often stop to attend to these or will log a call if they are unable to resolve it at the time. Only recently staff passing through Edgecumbe on their way to Te Teko and noticed felt pen graffiti at Bill Orr playground. They painted this out had reported that there was extensive graffiti on the basketball court which will require removal by our contractor. Arrangements have been made for the contractor to clean the graffiti.”

The playground referred to in the article which has been destroyed and is covered in graffiti is at the Riverslea Mall. This is the private property of the Riverslea Mall and does not belong to the Council.

The Council encourages all residents to report any complaints that they have by calling Customers Services on 306 0500 or logging a complaint via the Council’s website: www.whakatane.govt.nz/CustomerServices/FixItReportAProblem