The Lottery Grants Board has agreed to allocate a further $792,000 to the Tasman Mayoral Disaster Relief Fund, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today.
The Minister said that the additional allocation, followed a $1 million grant announced in March and came on top of more than $1 million of other government assistance since the fires.
"The new contribution will help the Tasman community in their recovery effort and help prevent further environmental damage," says Minister Martin, the Presiding Member of the Lottery Grants Board. "This money is targeted at remediating soil damage from the fires and helping community organisations that assisted with the fire response."
Ms Martin, who is also the Minister responsible for Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ), visited the fires in March and met with FENZ staff and others involved in the fire fighting and community support and saw the damage to land created by fire breaks used to help block the fires.
At that time, she sought Lottery Grants Board support for the release of funding for the Tasman Fire recovery. The Board responded positively and quickly to this request and an initial payment of $1 million was made available through the Lottery Minister's Discretionary Fund.
The Minister said that the Tasman District Council had since made a more accurate assessment of the cost of damage and the Board had again responded.
"Part of the allocation is to ameliorate soil damage that has increased the risk of flooding.
"This is something the Tasman community should not have to be concerned with while continuing to recover from the fire."
The Minister made the announcement in Nelson today at a picnic for firefighters as part of International Firefighters Day.
ENDS
Contact: Richard Ninness 021 892 536
Notes for Editors
The Lottery Grants Board funds activities with community benefit. The nature of the costs of land remediation, repair of the soil structure and costs to community organisations sit within the remit of the Board, and therefore the Board made the decision to fund it.
Private and public land has had damage to soil structure. The costs will go towards the land that is at most risk of having silt run-off. This will be managed by the Tasman District Council as they are administering the Tasman Mayoral Relief Fund.
Examples of community organisation that have supported the recovery effort include those that have looked after the welfare of people and animals that were displaced because of the fires and those that helped in the clean up after the fires.
Other Government assistance provided to the Tasman District:
- The Mayoral Relief Fund has received $170,000 from Civil Defence and $50,000 from MPI, (and $1m for land remediation from the March Lotteries Grant.)
- $100,000 rural/primary industry (from MPI)
- $500,000 for TaskForce Green (MSD)
- $200,000 in Civil Defence payments (MSD)
