Meng Foon’s seawall: just did as he pleased

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Re: Meng Foon’s seawall.

Bevan, while you may be right about the need for less red tape (October 31 letter), the fact of the matter is Meng Foon thought he could just do as he pleased and get away with it.

While you say this is not much different to what the Wainui Beach residents faced some years back, again in fact there is a big difference — and wasn’t Meng Foon the Mayor at the time?

The Wainui Beach residents sought to protect their properties from further erosion after a major storm had put their properties at serious risk — unlike the erosion to the Tatapouri foreshore, which has been slowly eroding over many, many years and cannot be attributed to any one weather-related event.

On the two separate occasions when the seawall immediately adjacent to both sides of the boat ramp was subjected to significant storm damage that needed major repairs, even this required resource consent from Gisborne District Council itself before any work could be carried out.

I would point out that the roadway into the Tatapouri area is a legal road and some of this work was undertaken to protect access.

Wainui Beach residents were also made, I believe, to remove any work carried out as no resource consent had been applied for or approved, so why the double standards from the GDC? Should the same not have been applied to this protection work by Meng Foon?

While Mr Foon says he informed local iwi about the project, what of the other stakeholders who also have vested interests in the Tatapouri area? As far as I am aware, the Gisborne Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club/boating community weren’t informed.

Also, building a fence/wall that surrounds your property in a town situation is vastly different to something that could have a detrimental effect to an environment such as the marine foreshore. As for blending into the surrounding environment, I suggest you take a look at the work as many of us see it as an eyesore.

While there could be sufficient cause for this work to take place, Mr Foon of all people should have realised that there is process to follow.

Craig Miller