Lobby group Walking on Water is asking councils to stop scaring Haumoana people into thinking there are no other options but managed retreat to deal with the major sea erosion problem out on the Cape Coast.
The group "took over" a council meeting at Haumoana Hall on Monday night which was set up by the Hastings District Council for people to review its coastal protection measures, as part of its long-term plan.
Spokesman Keith Newman presented to about 200 people at the meeting, suggesting Hastings District Council had blown out the costs of WOW's proposal to install groynes in the ocean, to stop sea erosion of the coast. "What we believe is that the council is continuing to consult using inflated and outdated costs for the proposed Haumoana groyne field," Mr Newman said.
"The WOW plan is at least $10 million cheaper than that proposed by the council and its adopted user-pays approach which would levy ratepayers of the small coastal village between $700 and $1700 each per year, over 25 years," he said.
Mr Newman said a number of elderly people in Haumoana "were shaking in their boots" about the prospect of paying higher rates in their senior years while younger couples who were "mortgaged to the hilt" were also worried. "Hawke's Bay Regional Council, through its engineers Tonkin and Taylor, is also messing with the process by suggesting we need a mountain of shingle to back fill the groynes before we've even started which has made the costs five-times as much," he said.