Minutes of a meeting of the Nelson Tasman Civil Defence Emergency Management Group
Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson
On Monday 2 October 2017, commencing at 2.00pm
Present: Her Worship the Mayor of Nelson R Reese, His Worship the Mayor of Tasman R Kempthorne and Tasman District Councillor T King
In Attendance: Manager Organisational Assurance and Emergency Management (R Ball), Civil Defence Emergency Management Team Leader (B Marsay), Policy Adviser (G Thorpe), Regional Emergency Management Advisor for Civil Defence (J Lovell), Nelson City Councillor (S Walker) and Governance Adviser (H Simpson)
Apology: Nelson City Councillor P Matheson
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Moved Mayor Reese / Mayor Kempthorne That the Committee Receives and accepts the apologies from Councillor Matheson. CARRIED |
Nil.
3. Civil Defence Emergency Management Group - 20 September 2017
Document number R8484, agenda pages 4 - 6 refer.
Moved Mayor Kempthorne / Cr King
That the Committee
Receives the minutes of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Joint Committee held on 20 September 2017 and confirms these as a true and correct record of the meeting.
CARRIED
4. Deliberations on the draft Nelson Tasman Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Plan
Document number R8336, agenda pages 7 - 228 refer.
Mayor Reese welcomed all those present to the meeting and invited Roger Ball, Gabrielle Thorpe and John Lovell to the table to speak to the draft Nelson Tasman Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Plan (the Plan).
Ms Thorpe gave a brief summary of the Plan review process and acknowledged that this work had been done on behalf of both Nelson City and Tasman District Councils.
Mr Ball commented on the helpfulness of the comprehensive submission to the Plan made by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (the Ministry).
Mr Lovell complimented the team on what he said was a well written and clearly laid out document. He said that the Ministry was comfortable with the changes that had been made following its submission to the Plan and confirmed that it was happy with the rationale given where a suggested change had not been made.
The committee discussed the methods used to communicate with the public during an emergency or disaster event and again noted the electronic sign boards that had been suggested at a previous meeting. Mr Ball said that he would follow up with Tasman District Council Community Relations Manager, Chris Choat to determine how many signs there were and where in the region these were stored.
The submission received from Mr Gavin O’Donnell was discussed. In response to Mr O’Donnell’s concerns that the draft plan only accounted for a small cross section of the rural sector, Mr Ball advised that Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) was working with the Ministry for Primary Industries on establishing a Primary Cluster Adverse Events Network.
The committee discussed Mr O’Donnell’s point about the upper limit of the emergency budget allocated to Local Controllers. Mr Ball confirmed that, recognising the isolation of some areas in the region, this was the amount Local Controllers were authorised for emergency spending (rather than the total amount for business as usual) to use in their immediate response to an emergency event. He said that this was only expected to last a few days, until the lines of communication between CDEM and Local Controllers could be restored, at which point CDEM would be able to assist. Mr Ball acknowledged that it was not always possible for Local Controllers to be immediately aware of the costs incurred during their response, as many of these would not be notified until after the event had been dealt with. The Committee noted the importance for Local Controllers to make decisions based on response to the event, rather than an attempt not to exceed budgetary limitations. Mr Ball said that this messaging was included in the induction to the Local Controller role and noted that their authority to act under legislation was noted in the draft Plan.
Ms Thorpe tabled copies of four diagrams from within the Plan that had been amended since the agenda was circulated. She said that no other changes had been made. The Committee noted that there would also be a web based version of the Plan that had been specifically formatted for online viewing. They requested that the use of yellow and white text be avoided where possible, as these tones were not easily visible and made the document difficult to read.
In response to a question, Mr Ball confirmed that staff would respond to all submitters in writing. He noted the request from the Committee to include an explanation as to the budgetary limit set for Local Controllers in their response to Mr O’Donnell.
The Committee thanked staff for their hard work and noted their appreciation that staff had run such a streamlined process to review the Plan.
The Committee discussed when the Plan might be signed off by the Ministry and noted that this may not be until the New Year and after the new Government had been sworn in and a new Minister for Civil Defence and Emergency Management was in place.
The Committee discussed the alignment of CDEM plans for the whole Top of the South. In response to question, Mr Lovell advised that West Coast Regional and Marlborough District Councils had both updated their Plans. He did note that West Coast Regional Council would need to re do its Plan as this had been updated prior to the changes made to the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act. He said that it had been given until May 2018 to complete this work.
There being no further business the meeting ended at 3.00pm.
Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings:
Chairperson
Date