More than $2.8 million of contestable Regional Rescue Services Rate money has been allocated for the next three years with the Northland Emergency Services Trust, Surf Life Saving Northern Region and Coastguard Northern Region among the beneficiaries.

Northland Regional Council Chair Geoff Crawford says after strong public support, the council recently decided to continue funding regional rescue services as a form of fundraising and an administrative ‘community good’ service on behalf of the community.

The move comes despite the contestable funding not falling under the remit of legislative responsibilities for a regional council.

With the funding requested far exceeding the funding available, the new allocations aim to ensure the most equitable distribution of funds to agencies across the region, which could demonstrate a real need for the funding and an ability to use it to manage the increasing demand for their services.

Chair Crawford says in order to allocate the rate, organisations which had received funding from its predecessor, the Emergency Services Rate, over the past three years were invited to reapply for a further three years funding.

Applications totalling 131% of the available $935,000 annual funding were received from:

• Northland Emergency Services Trust
• Surf Life Saving Northern Region
• St John Northern Region
• Coastguard Northern Region
• Northland & Far North Search and Rescue
• Far North Radio and Sea Rescue.

Chair Crawford explained that, while council strongly believes in the work that each agency delivers, the amount of funding requested was larger than the pool available and council had to consider the benefit to each individual agency, their dependency on the funding, and other funding sources available to them, when distributing the fund.

He says the largest single allocation - $420,000 annually to support the provision of helicopter rescue and ambulance services in Northland - will go to the Northland Emergency Services Trust (NEST).

That was less than the $535,000 NEST had received from the council previously and which it had been seeking again.

"This is in part due to more than 85% of NEST funding coming from other sources and our fund being over-subscribed." (It was noted that NEST provides an essential service and funding should be continued to ensure the service can be continued.)

Surf Lifesaving Northern Region will receive $295,000 annually - a $71,000 annual boost to its previous funding - to provide paid lifeguard services in key Northland locations during the peak holiday period. This is less than it requested which Chair Crawford says is due to the Regional Rescue Services Rate being over-subscribed.

Coastguard Northern Region will also see its annual funding more than double from $84,000 annually to $180,000 annually. While less than requested, the new funding will cover a significant percentage of operating costs, supporting the largely volunteer driven organisation.

Rounding out the funding is Northland & Far North Search & Rescue set to receive $30,600 a year and Far North Radio and Sea Rescue receiving $11,000 annually.

St John Northern Region - which had previously received $90,000 in annual funding - will miss out on council support in this funding round.

Chair Crawford says regional council funding contributes only a small portion of St John’s budget, making it much less reliant on council funding.

"In relation to other organisations, St John has a large operating budget and high levels of funding from other sources, including an $81M cash reserve."

He says council was pleased to be able make the investment it had in regional rescue services which would benefit many Northlanders - and visitors to the region - over the next three years.

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