Some advantages?

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

Note: This letter was received on September 22 and held until the issues raised were investigated by Local Democracy Reporter Matthew Rosenberg

As owner of the Tatapouri Campground, Meng Foon has been carrying out work to construct a seawall to the Tatapouri foreshore in order to either reclaim land or reduce any erosion to the land in front of the campground.

Surely this kind of work requires resource consent. When brought to the attention of the Gisborne District Council a cease-all-work notice was put in place pending a council decision, suggesting no resource consent had been approved.

Now it’s been three weeks since council were notified and still no action is forthcoming on a council decision. Either the owners have the necessary resource consents or they don’t and action needs to be taken.

Meng Foon has continued to construct this seawall irrespective of any council order. Obviously he must think rules and regulations don’t apply to him.

I seem to recall Wainui Beach residents faced a similar issue some years ago when heavy tidal surges washed away rock groynes, putting residents’ property at serious risk from weather-related erosion. Residents sought to remedy the situation themselves due to lack of action from the GDC and my understanding was that these residents were made to remove all work carried out and some form of court action took place in order to rectify the situation. So with this in mind surely Meng Foon should be made to remove all his work until such time as the appropriate resource consent has been applied for and approved.

Of concern is if this work does go ahead, will this new seawall create problems for the Tatapouri boat ramp as we already have issues with the current seawall to the north side of the ramp during heavy swells.  Has an engineering report been required so that any such issues have been addressed? Were local iwi consulted or for that matter what about the boat ramp users themselves? As far as the ramp users are concerned the answer is NO.

It appears as though being an ex-mayor has its advantages.

CRAIG MILLER