We recently told you about the successful completion of the Motueka River Stopbank Project Stage One – part of a three-year programme of works to enhance flood protection measures across numerous sites along the Motueka River.

That was great news – and now further improvements are on the way.

In a major announcement for Motueka, funding for the Stopbanks Refurbishment Project Stage Two has been approved by Central Government.

Tasman is the only council in the country to have received their full funding request from the Before the Deluge 2.0 project list.

We are thrilled to be able to kick off this project and further build climate resilience for the Motueka community.

$6.6 million will go towards work on the Lower Motueka River stopbank refurbishment, while there will also be $900,000 going towards stopbank repairs at Peach Island.

The Lower Motueka River and Brooklyn Stream stopbanks are to have a 6.7km upgrade, building on the initial stage of 4.8km of Kānoa co-funded work.

The stopbank refurbishment on the Lower Motueka River would protect approximately 1400 hectares of fertile and productive land.

We had made provision for additional local share co-funding in the Tasman 10-Year Plan to complete the projects. The split in the co-funding agreement is 60% central government and 40% Council.

All of the projects that received funding are consented. All going to plan, we are aiming to start construction of the first work package in early 2025.