Briscoes boss Rod Duke causes stir in community with boat ramp

Multimillionaire Briscoes' boss Rod Duke is replacing the slipway or boat ramp at his $12 million-plus St Mary's Bay home but critics have questioned his right to do so and asked if he has become a fish farmer.

"Is Rod Duke branching out into aquaculture or is it a really long jetty co-opting public space? You be the judge," wrote one local on social media of what he saw as most surprising construction into the sea.

Another questioned how a private structure could extend some metres into the sea: "Don't riparian rights end at high water mark?"

Construction at Sentinel Beach yesterday showing the new ramp at left. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

But a barrister and Auckland Council says the structure is legal.

Richard Brabant, Duke's RMA barrister handling resource consent issues, said none of the social media posts were true and Duke was certainly not planning to farm fish at Sentinel Beach.

Instead, he was re-building the ramp from what he hopes to become a helipad boat shed, the barrister indicated.

"The old or existing slipway was demolished while the boatshed was being rebuilt," Brabant said of the waterfront structure at Rod and Patricia Duke's Sarsfield St home.

Duke was simply re-building an existing structure from his boatshed to the sea and consents were in place to allow that construction, Brabant said.

"Rod's just replacing something that already existed," Brabant said.

"Construction is now under way. We got a certificate of compliance for the boat shed, with the timber cladding corrugated iron and shutter windows and that's all certificated. Last year, the architects started down the building consent application and that came through in February but with the whole lockdown, construction was delayed.

Steve Pearce, Auckland Council's regulatory compliance manager, also said the new construction was legal.

"The plans approved as part of the existing use right certificate for this structure show that the length, width and area of the original and replacement slipway are the same albeit with a slightly different gradient on the slip way," Pearce said today.

Construction of the replacement slipway had started earlier this month, he said.

An artist's impression of the re-built boat shed and slipway at Duke's place. Photo / supplied

"The compliance unit was contacted by the contractors prior to works commencing to set up a pre-construction meeting. A temporary fence has been erected on the beachfront while construction is undertaken," Pearce said.

Buoys had been attached to the fence to alert the public during high tide.

"Council compliance officers attended the site on June 12 and found the works to be fully compliant," Pearce said.

Duke's national retail empire encompasses Briscoes Homeware, Living & Giving and Rebel Sport and he appeared on this year's NBR Rich List with an estimated $750m fortune.

Briscoes managing director Rod Duke. Picture / supplied

In 2017, Auckland Council documents show the Briscoes Group managing director and his wife Patricia got consent to demolish their old Herne Bay corrugated iron and weatherboard boatshed and build a new one for chopper use.

"But the scaffolding has gone up and now that's going to be completed," Brabant said.

Duke raised local opposition when he sought to fly helicopters to and from the boatshed at the public beach.

Last year, Brabant said he planned to make a separate application in future for helicopter takeoffs and landings at the boatshed.

One step at a time," he said in October on the next phase of legal proceedings where Duke hopes to win flight rights.

Today, he said that remained the strategy: "The approach is to get the boat shed completed and then to make the separate new application. That's the decision Rod has to make at some stage - whether he wants to proceed. You could either notify the existing application or make a fresh one," Brabant said of the helicopter consent.

Duke's helipad boat shed on Sentinel Beach in November. Photo / Alex Burton

The barrister's hope is for Duke to win both battles by separating the legal issues around the boatshed structure from the legal issues around helicopter movements.

The Dukes built a new house in Sarsfield St above the bay and their site slopes down to the waterfront and one of Auckland's closest inner-city beaches.

They left a large Remuera site late last year for the new home.

Don Mathieson, the co-chairman of the Herne Bay Residents Association, opposed the Dukes getting consent for the boat shed to become a helipad, saying it could deprive locals of the amenities of the beach.

He was disappointed he council granted resource consent on a non-notified basis.

"They only considered the adjoining neighbours and given that this is on a beach, it really doesn't have neighbours as such," Mathieson said at the time.

That consent was then overturned, forcing the Dukes to undertake a new strategy for the boatshed to become a helipad.