Media Release: Regional councillors give the conditional go-ahead for Westport Flood Protection Scheme consultation

‍ Media Release

Resilient Westport

15 September 2026

Regional councillors give the conditional go-ahead for Westport Flood Protection Scheme consultation

West Coast Regional councillors voted at an Extraordinary Council meeting today to approve the adoption of a Special Consultative Procedure (SCP) on resetting the Westport Flood Protection Scheme (WFPS), subject to a final Auditor’s Report by Friday 18 September 2026.

The Special Consultative Procedure document requires an Auditor’s Report to be finalised; however auditors Ernst and Young have requested some additional narrative around risks to be included in the document.

Once Ernst and Young is satisfied with these amendments, they will issue a final Auditor’s Report.

The changes include noting that discussions are ongoing with the government’s funding agency, NIFFCo, which took over financial oversight of the Westport Flood Protection Scheme from the Department of Internal Affairs early this year. The project team submitted the reset plans to NIFFCo on 31 August 2026, and awaits the outcome of this, to extend the funding window to June 2029.

Ernst and Young has also requested the impact of significant reform in the local government sector should be signalled more clearly. This includes planned changes to the structure of West Coast governance and newly introduced legislation to cap rate increases on a three-year average between 2% and 4%. This would impact on the increases in rates that are signalled in the consultation document and higher proposed increases would require an exemption.

Once the final Auditor’s Report is received, the caveats on today’s WCRC decision will be removed and the SCP will go ahead as planned.

The consultation period for submissions will run from Monday 21 September until the close of business 21 October 2026. The consultation will be open for anyone to submit targeting those who live in and around the Westport Rating District. This includes Westport, Carters Beach and Snodgrass Road. 

All the consultation documents will be available on the WCRC website: www.wcrc.govt.nz/community/consultation and additional background information can be found at: www.resilientwestport.co.nz/special-consultative-procedure

The results of the SCP will be presented to Council in December 2026 for a decision. At today’s meeting, councillors were assured by the project team that the potential risks in relation to the government funding, that were signalled by the Auditors, would be resolved prior to them being called on to make any final decisions on the project reset.