Call for soft beach protection

PROTECTION OPTIONS: James Millton (pictured) and his wife Annie will be annoyed to see these rocks go from the dune toe in front of their Wairere Road home on Monday. But at the same time they make a plea to Gisborne District Council to give all beachfront home owners at Wainui some options on how they can protect their properties from sea erosion in an emergency. Picture by Paul Rickard

James and Annie Millton talk to Murray Robertson about the imminent removal of rocks placed on Wainui Beach to stop sea erosion, and their hopes for a council policy that allows for “soft” emergency property protection.

Wairere Road residents James and Annie Millton will not be happy when they watch council contractors move on to Wainui Beach by their place on Monday to remove rocks placed to stop sea erosion, but they hope good will come out of it for the whole Wainui beachfront community.

They hope to see a council policy created that allows for some sort of “soft” emergency property protection.

The provisions of the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) do not allow for “hard” engineering like rocks and groynes to stop sea erosion at beaches like Wainui.

Emergency works were carried out in 2016 to secure the toe of the dune at the bottom of Mr Millton’s property, including a gabion basket structure and the boulders were put behind it.

At a consent hearing earlier this year a commissioner ruled that the baskets could stay for five years.

But he also ruled the rocks had to go, because “soft” engineering was the only acceptable method of coastal protection at Wainui.

“We have been told the contractors move in on Monday to remove the 20-30 cubic metres of rocks put there by Gisborne District Council,” Mr Millton said.

“Annie and I accept the fact that the ammenity value of the beach could be improved by not having ‘hard’ engineering like that to stop erosion.

“But our property is going to feel more vulnerable without the rocks, and we would like to think the council would consider a policy that allows ‘soft’ emergency works to protect the homes of beachfront residents at Wainui.”

A 'managed threat'The council’s Four Waters operations manager Neil Daykin signalled earlier this year that a “managed retreat” was something the Wainui community should prepare for.

“A policy that allows residents to put biodegradeable jute sandbags in place in an emergency situation would give Wainui residents some relief,” Mr Millton said.

“It is a natural thing for people to want to protect their turangawaewae.

“Such a policy would ease the anxiety levels for a lot of people out at Wainui, and it would be ‘soft’ engineering.”

He said his plea to the council was not just about their individual situation.

“We all want to protect the beautiful Wainui Beach, one of New Zealand’s best beaches.

“We have been offered 330 pingao plants, and later some spinifex plants, which we intend to plant at the toe of the dune in front of our place when the rocks have been removed.

“The council has offered to do the planting, but it would be good to broaden that out along the beach and get the wider community involved,” Mr Millton said.

“We hope to tie in with the Wainui Coast Care Group who have done extensive planting work at the surf club end, with a very good result.”

John Logan from the Coast Care Group said the group had planted about 500 metres of dune face south of the Hamanatua Stream.

“We’ve been operating as a group since 2010 and have planted around 5000 spinifex plants along that stretch.

“The planting has extended the dunes by up to 10 metres, as sand builds up around the plantings. The plants trap wind-blown sand.

“It is our opinion that in James’s area of the beach it would be difficult to create a dune using grasses, but it’s worth a try,” Mr Logan said.

“But we are 100 percent behind his suggestion that the council put an emergency sandbag system in place, as he suggested.

“That’s in view of the fact that no other form of dune and property protection, other than grass plantings, is now available at Wainui.”

Mr Millton said he would like to see a grass planting zone extended right along the beachfront, for the benefit of all.

“If we can involve the wider beachfront community in it, it would be a good way for the beachfront people to meet their neighbours and work together to protect the beach.

“In the meantime, we are annoyed those rocks have to go on Monday, but we accept it, and hope for better options at the beach.”

A response from the GDC indicates there may be options available.

Liveable Communities director for Gisborne District Council Andrew White said the council wanted to keep an open dialogue in the community to implement the Wainui Beach Management Strategy, and the practicalities and process of managed retreat.

“We are open to assessing and discussing options for achieving this,” he said.

“We acknowledge that we are working within a national regulatory framework, and that some proposed solutions are not possible.

“Early advice is that the suggested jute bag solution would require resource consent as a structure, but we’ll look into that further,” Mr White said.

“Development of any new policy would need to be prioritised within the council’s policy work programme.”

Mr White added by way of clarification that the NZCPS does allow for “hard” engineering, provided certain threshold(s) were met.

“Wainui Beach is one of 10 national significant surf breaks in the NZCPS and therefore has added thresholds for any works.”