Officials in Westport are ploughing ahead with plans to ring fence the town with stopbanks and flood walls despite earlier suggestions the design could turn the town into a "bathtub".
This week the West Coast Regional Council released a review which supported its plan and now design work will get underway. It comes after huge storms in 2021 and 2022 which flooded large parts of the town.
The latest review said: "What is clear is that Westport will have a higher level of security with the implementation of the [council's] concept plan and there should be no doubt in the community's mind about this."
The review, by river engineers, found issues with an earlier review commissioned by the Department of Internal Affairs and undertaken by engineering firm Tonkin + Taylor.
"The constrained communication of information prior to and during the review process resulted in an incomplete understanding by [Tonkin + Taylor] of some important technical detail and the context of the project."
West Coast Regional Councillor Frank Dooley was less diplomatic: "Tonkin + Taylor never had the assumptions right. They never actually talked to the engineers that produced that report and I'm sorry but I think they were in fairy land."
The earlier Tonkin + Taylor report said: "Conceptually, the main component of the Protect proposal, a ring bund around urban Westport, functions as 'bathtub'".
"Failure of the wall during a large flood event would result in the town being rapidly inundated with water."
But the latest advice the regional council has received shows all the concerns can be mitigated.
Dooley, who describes himself as the number one protagonist, said progress has been too slow. "To me it's been very frustrating, very frustrating. It's like beating your head against a brick wall at times."
Though he said after the last council meeting he walked out with a smile on his face. "We can mitigate the concerns and we can move forward."
Buller District Mayor Jamie Cleine said he understands people's frustration with the process but it has to be done right.
"The preliminary design of the major works is a significant body of work and I think that will be a multi-year project to deliver likely in stages. I would like to think by this time next year there'll be some portions of that that are consented and likely underway."
Chris Coll is a surveyor and local Civil Defence veteran who knows the Buller River well.
"I've always said the Buller is like a sleeping giant. It's all very well until you poke it. As long as you don't get it wild it's just a lovely river to live with."
He hopes, after years of council's talking about flood protection, the work will finally begin.
"I don't know how many times we've taken people over and shown them around and then we've thought 'right, it looks like it's going to go ahead this time.'
"Then no, another three or four years goes on and another lot come in and we show them all over again. I'm really, really optimistic this time that it's going to happen."
Even with the design work underway it's still a long road ahead for Westport. There's no clarity on what will happen to flood prone areas like Snodgrass Rd.
The latest review is also suggesting Westport should look to move to higher ground in the next 30 years.
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