Late last December, part-time Fryer St resident Daniel Gerber alerted council to water ponding outside his property after roadworks were carried out for Ngai Tahu Property’s housing project on the former high school site.
In the process a nearby stormwater drain had been moved.
"I saw it coming that our property was going to be flooded and we were going to have a mess when we have serious rain," Gerber says.
From then on, "there was constantly water coming onto our property whenever it rained".
Despite constant pleas to council, he says he was "ignored and not listened to".
During September’s 24-hour deluge, silt and sediment overwhelmed his property.
He spent six hours partially clearing it, and even now, he and his wife Anita need to wear gumboots to get to their clothes line.
Gerber says council should have helped with the clean-up and provided sandbags as a temporary solution.
On October 11, he met with three council managers but left saying he was still dissatisfied, and would be taking legal action, which he’s still considering.
"I’m pleased they’re finally doing something but it doesn’t resolve the fact they had done nothing for 10 months", causing "sleepless nights, expense and worrying", he says.
"I just don’t feel they have treated us fairly."
Gerber says he’d like council to apologise and "compensate us a little bit for what our expenses were — and they can then invoice the developer that made the mistake".
Speaking to Mountain Scene just before the drain was installed, council property & infrastructure GM Tony Avery said "we are working with the developer about remedying their mistake or their error".
"This has taken longer than we would have liked."
He "absolutely" felt for Gerber, but insisted September’s havoc wasn’t due to the mud tank issue but "fairly unprecedented" rainfall that had also affected many others.
"His property is at the bottom of a road that was bringing a whole lot of debris down with the flow.
"We feel very much for anybody that had an invasion."
In minutes from last month’s meeting, Avery said council wouldn’t reimburse Gerber for his clean-up but recommended he approach his insurance company.
