Austin Oliver and Angus Robson are holding a public meeting to discuss the track’s restoration next week. Photo / Diane McCarthy
Austin Oliver and Angus Robson are holding a public meeting to discuss the track’s restoration next week. Photo / Diane McCarthy
As disgruntled residents gear up for a meeting about repairing Ōhope Beach’s West End walkway, the organiser of the annual race the track is famed for is defending Whakatāne District Council’s cautious approach.
Toi’s Challenge race director William Doney said he was as sad as anyone that the West End section of Ngā Tapuwae o Toi track has been closed for so long.
The 18km race around Whakatāne’s scenic walkway has become popular with runners from around New Zealand since it began three decades ago.
The race had to be detoured to Ohope Road after a slip closed the section of track in 2022.
As president of Whakatāne Athletics and Harriers Club, which organises the race, Doney said the club was fully behind plans to have the track reopened.
“I get so many people from all over the country asking me why nothing’s been done. It’s been four years since we’ve been able to run the Toi’s Challenge race through there.”
Toi’s Challenge race director William Doney said he understands the health and safety issues faced by Whakatāne District Council in allowing volunteers to reopen the West End track. Beacon file photo
People were less keen to run the event: The new route was less scenic, cut out the beach section, and was longer with more hills, he said.
However, he said he also understood the council’s concerns about health and safety.
The club had done a lot of work on the track up until about 18 years ago.
“I’ve been running for this club for 60 years. When I was about 10 years old, we used to carry in steps into the track and never had a problem with it. But back in those days we never had health and safety and the red tape.”
For that reason, he did not go along to the meeting on December 4 when Austin Oliver and Angus Robson asked the council to support their proposal to allow volunteers to carry out repair work.
Dozens of supporters attended the meeting with them.
“I can understand where the council are coming from,” Doney said.
“We, as the organisers of the event, have to cover ourselves too. [The council] have been good to us, helping us any way they can for the last four years, and they still support us.
“Unfortunately, with health and safety, we understand where the red tape is.”
Doney said the cost of traffic management for the new route across Ōhope Rd was around $7000.
At one time, runners used a cattle subway to cross the road but, again, health and safety became an issue.
“It would have had to be cleaned out because of animals going through there.”
Club volunteers used to handle traffic management at the bottom of Gorge Rd.
“We’re not allowed to anymore. As race organisers, anybody who gets hit we are responsible for. And we don’t want to see that happen either.
“It’s sad, really, for organisers. It’s so frustrating, the amount of red tape we go through. A couple of times we even looked at not [holding the race] because of the traffic management cost,” Doney said.
A community meeting is being held in the Ōhope Hall on Wednesday at 6pm to discuss the use of volunteers to reopen the walkway.
Meeting organisers said it was for anyone disgruntled with the council’s lack of support for volunteers to carry out work to restore the track.
Mayor Nandor Tanczos told them last week the council would decide in the new year about repairing the track.
He said councillors were keen to see the community involved in projects as much as possible. When the council decided how to proceed, there would be a public procurement process they could apply to.
“Your application will be looked at equally with everyone else’s.”
It was not just health and safety compliance of the people carrying out the work itself.
“The other issue is the ongoing safety of the people using the track because of the slip-prone cliff. We’re getting more and more slips with climate change.
“It’s not just about the legislative requirements. We actually don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
