Mayor Len from

Part two of September’s Column

We were not able to include all of Mayor Len’s column in last week’s issue of The Informer. This section was intended last week.

Here are a few things our Council has delivered on so far in terms of community connections and recovery work.

Funding and Grants

• Mayors’ Disaster Relief Fund: $437,000 provided to 203 applicants

• Disaster Relief Fund for Play, Active Recreation and Sport: $59,255.10 provided to 14 applicants.

• Mayoral Relief Social Recovery Fund will be distributed by next week to applicants from around the district. (More information will be made public next week once applicants have been informed).

• Cyclone Gabrielle Business Recovery Grant: $3.8 million distributed to businesses affected by the cyclone around the Coromandel.

Social and Economic Resilience

• Created and implementing our Recovery Plan.

• Rolling out community resilience kits to isolated areas to be hubbed. (This includes Starlink communications systems, BBQs, radios and all basic emergency requirements to allow a community to communicate and function until further help arrives.)

• Established our Community Partnerships unit and employed two Community Social Navigators (through Department of Internal Affairs Funding) to work collaboratively to support our communities and whānau as part of our Cyclone Recovery Plan.

• Our economy has taken one of the biggest hits compared to visitor economies in other storm affected regions. We’re leading, alongside central government agencies, a workforce planning project, in anticipation of a much larger civil/road construction capability being needed for the Hauraki and Coromandel. We’re also working with government, business and industry, iwi and hapu to identify training and business needs to support the economic recovery. This includes working with iwi and Coromandel recognising that Cathedral Cove has experienced severe damage that may be incredibly challenging to recover from.

Caption: Len Salt.