The Christchurch City Council is not backing down on including warnings on property reports about their vulnerability to sea level rise.
The Christchurch seaside suburb of Sumner (file) Photo: 123RF
This is despite a peer review that said they should be removed from the 18,000 affected properties until the accuracy of the Tonkin + Taylor report the council was relying upon could be verified.
A year ago, coastal residents facing the prospect of being tarred with the brush of being vulnerable to inundation and erosion were given a reprieve by Environment Minister Nick Smith.
He said planning rule changes would exclude making a call on the risk they faced until a proper process could be gone through.
Fast forward to September 2016 and a decision was made on Monday to retain the warnings, albeit with a few extra words around further work being required before a definitive statement could be made on the exact nature of the risk.
Karleen Edwards Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
It was important to remember the peer review found the original report the council relied upon was largely correct, said the council's chief executive, Karleen Edwards.
"The conclusion of the peer review panel was that the methodology and data used in the report was probably technically suitable and robust after further work was carried out."
Detail around whether a property is vulnerable to erosion or inundation would be replaced with a general warning.
But prospective property buyers would still be able to access the more detailed information by getting in touch with the council.
Despite what the peer review recommended, Ms Edwards said the council did not have a choice about whether to remove the warnings from the LIM (Land Information Memorandum) reports altogether.
"We have a statutory obligation under the Local Government Act that if we hold information then we need to share that on the LIMs and appropriately.
"So it's important for people who are going to invest or develop or purchase a property that they're made aware of any particular hazards."
Darrell Latham Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
A seaside resident and spokesperson for the Coastal Residents United Group, Darrell Latham, begged to differ with the council on the accuracy of the Tonkin + Taylor report.
"What the Tonkin and Taylor peer review report said was [that] subject to a review being undertaken and more robust processes being carried out, the recommendation was that at this stage [the report] was not fit for purpose."
Another seaside resident and the chair of the residents' group, Tim Sintes, said retaining the warnings prevented him and his neighbours from doing anything with their properties.
"It means that when somebody comes along to you perhaps to buy your house and notices the hazard notice, it puts a warning so it's a bargaining point, so it's hard for the seller."
Seaside resident Tim Sintes said the warnings make it hard for those wanting to sell their properties. Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
Councillor David East, who represents the seaside ward of Burwood Pegasus, said the council was being overly risk averse when it came to climate change.
"It's all predicated on extreme levels of greenhouse gases. If we were clever enough to harness solar energy more and battery power, the reliance on fossil fuels will decrease and perhaps the magnitude of climate change may drop with it."
The new amended LIM reports would apply from Monday.
The council's chief executive said the LIMs would be amended again once the review of the hazard report had been completed.