“It’s disappointing that Council’s own contractor destroyed Beach Road. This also did some destruction to Council’s budget, costing around $13 million that Council borrowed and we will have to repay.

“The purpose of Project Reclaim was to prevent old waste from washing into the ocean. But the digging was allowed to go far beyond the shoreline, so far that Beach Road was severed in two places.

“I’m also disappointed that Council failed to undertake this work with a 50% subsidy from Central Government’s Contaminated Sites and Vulnerable Landfill fund. This fund was well known to Council staff. Timaru received a $6 million grant for remediation of the Peel Forest landfill. If ratepayers’ welfare mattered at all to them, our Council would have deferred this entire project until a Government subsidy was granted to us.