Opening of Ōpōtiki’s new harbour wall walkways to the public and completion of the wharf upgrades were among the highlights of Ōpōtiki District Council’s newly adopted Annual Report for 2024-2025.

The report was adopted almost three months past the statutory deadline on December 22, and highlighted achievements from the financial year ending June 31.

The Ōpōtiki Harbour Project, started in 2020, reached a few milestones, including Whaka-tōhea Mussels boats beginning to use the harbour, the opening of the walkways along the harbour’s training walls,  upgrading the access road and carpark to the eastern wall and one of the largest dune-restoration projects in New Zealand happening along the western wall.

Upgrades to the town wharf were completed to accommodate the mussel boats as an interim measure until an industrial marina can be built on the western side of the harbour.

Other successful achievements listed for the reporting period include solving overcrowding issues in the carpark at Ōpōtiki Wharf’s boat ramp.

A new overflow boat-trailer park adjacent to the Coastguard building sometimes had over 100 users during peak boat ramp activity days.

The Whitikau Reserve upgrade was completed with a new post and wire rope fence using piles from the old wharf, new bollards, a hand-crane cog used when ships berth in the area restored and mounted at the entrance as a historic feature and refurbishment of the war memorial Cenotaph.

The council’s partnership with Motu Trails Charitable Trust was celebrated, with the addition of the Pākihikura Harbour Trail to the Motu Trail network.

The partnership with Huku-taia Domain Care Group also received special mention, providing over 1000 volunteer hours annually to maintain tracks, control pests and otherwise enhance visitor experience of this nationally significant council reserve.

The Princess Street Reserve Grandstand project saw the removal of the unsafe upper level of the grandstand and upgrade of the lower level’s toilets and changing rooms.

Ōpōtiki’s Matariki Festival receiving a national award from New Zealand Events Association for best community or not-for-profit event was a highlight for August 2024.

The Three Waters’ teams have also been busy, with relocation of Ōpōtiki township’s wastewater rising main, which transports sewage to the oxidation ponds.

The main was relocated further from the river’s edge to mitigate immediate risks from gradual river erosion.

Since flooding from rural land north of town entering urban areas in September 2023, progress was made on a project to create a stopbank along the Duke Street drain.

This project has since received National Infrastructure Funding via a sub-loan from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and is expected to be completed mid-2027.

The weighbridge at the Ōpōtiki Resource Recovery Centre going live was just one of the achievements in solid waste management.

Significant capital works at the centre included expanding the green waste area, construction of a secure area for hazardous materials and an AgRecovery recycling container for agricultural chemical containers. The council also began accepting commercial waste including construction and demolition waste.

Though the report was for the year ended June 30, with a statutory deadline for adoption of October 31, it was only ready for adoption three days before Christmas.

A report to council at the extraordinary meeting on December 22, put the delay down to issues with the auditing process.

It said following challenges experienced during the previous year’s audit, the timeframe had been extended to improve efficiency and audit quality. The legislative breach would be recorded in a management report.  

During the previous year’s auding process, Audit New Zealand had made recommendations for improvements to the council’s reporting to make the audit process more efficient but the council had not been able to put all of these in place in time for this year’s audit. It expects the improvements to be in place for next year’s audit.

The Ōpōtiki council was not alone in breaching the deadline this year. At least three other councils Local Democracy Reporting is aware of only adopted their reports this month.

A Summary Annual Report, providing a condensed version report, is scheduled for completion and publication within the next few weeks.

The full report is now available to view on the council’s website, www.odc.govt.nz/our-council/reports-studies/annual-report.