Editorial: Locals must share in Bay

Dylan Thorne believes residents of Pilot Bay need to learn to share their paradise with others. Photo / Barb Lowther.

We all want our own slice of paradise.

A place to relax and recover from the demands of daily life.

However, problems arise when residents get over-protective and territorial about the area in which they live, and show a reluctance to share its charms.

This, unfortunately, appears to be the case in Pilot Bay.

Some residents living opposite the popular beach have opposed the placing of a new free public barbecue.

They argue that they don't want the smell of sizzling sausages wafting across the road. Tauranga historian Buddy Mikaere is having none of it. On Saturday he took his barbecue to Pilot Bay and enjoyed a Kiwi tradition by the beach in protest.

Mr Mikaere is scornful of the influence being exerted by residents, forcing the council to reconsider where the barbecue should be placed - it was originally to go at the boat ramp end of Pilot Bay.

It's the latest unrest in a saga that has surrounded council efforts to improve public access and amenities along Pilot Bay - centred on opposition to the recently completed boardwalk.

Council parks manager Marie Gordon said the council was working through the options of where it would be placed and, for his part, Papamoa councillor Steve Morris says the issue is sensitive as the barbecue was being donated by a family.

While the council should consider residents' concerns, those concerns need to be valid.

The council should place the barbecue at the boat ramp and residents in the area should accept they have to share their slice of paradise with others.