Debate rages over road access point

A barricade put up to stop access to Parimahu beach via Blackhead Road.

A Porangahau farmer is asking for Maori land, recently awarded to Ngati Kere by a Treaty of Waitangi settlement, in return for easier access to a traditional seafood gathering place, says Rongomaraeroa marae chairman Ahuriri Houkamau.

Farmer Frank Gordon has blocked direct access across his land to Blackhead Point Beach, also known as Parimahu. Maori must now use the traditional route to the beach, the longer paper road which needs a 4WD to cross a deep stream with no bridge.

Mr Gordon has locked his gate in the past, upset with litter and vandalism on his property.

Mr Houkama said: "We have been contacted by his lawyer, saying he will open up that track and sign it over to us if we give him some sections we are about to get in our claim next year."

He said signing over the land was not a possibility so on December 20 he joined 30 members of the Te Pari-o-Mahu Beach Access Group building a raft to cross the Waikaraka Stream on the paper road route, to access Ngati Kere's traditional summer residence in time for Christmas.

Mr Houkamau said using the shorter route had not been an issue until Mr Gordon took ownership of the land surrounding it.

Central Hawke's Bay Council brokered a deal to swap the paper road crossing the length of Mr Gordon's farm for the easier route.

The swap looked likely to happen after the direct track was fenced but the deal stalled early this year after Mr Gordon's concerns about vandalism and the costs incurred.

Concrete blocks were placed in the direct track's gateway, sparking the raft-building exercise.

Mr Gordon's lawyer Steve Lunn said his client had not reneged on the deal to swap the paper road for direct beach access "and he and his family are just as frustrated about this as the hapu and iwi members".

At the end of the paper road lies an undeveloped 19th-century paper settlement called Blackhead Point Village with dozens of vacant sections owned by the Crown, Mr Gordon and the Hunter family.

The government-owned sections are due be returned to Ngati Kere under the Treaty of Waitangi Deed of Settlement with Heretaunga Tamatea.

Ngati Kere spokesman Dr David Tipene-Leach said, during Treaty negotiations, Mr Gordon was offered the government-owned sections, which Ngati Kere would not pursue in their treaty claim, in return for Mr Gordon allowing a campsite to go to DoC.

DoC would then offer the site to Ngati Kere as a traditional food-gathering campsite as part of Treaty negotiations.

"We thought this a pretty fair deal," Dr Tipene-Leach said.

"Mr Gordon eventually said no."

He said now the Blackhead Township sections were coming into Ngati Kere ownership it was unlikely it would let them go.

Central Hawke's Bay Council CEO John Freeman said the road swap was "clouded" by the Treaty claim, proposed land swaps and compensation requests.

"It has been slowed for various legal reasons, personality reasons - people's views and comments haven't helped," he said.

Mr Freeman said the council was not prepared to spend millions of dollars building a road and bridge on the paper road and the development of the sections would not pay for it because most were on swamp or very steep land.

The paper road traversed a block of Maori land leased by Mr Gordon, which would take six months to process in the Maori Land Court, but other easements necessary for the road swap were waiting to be signed off by property owners.

"There are a whole lot of things that clouded the issue. Unless they can put all those things to one side and just focus on closing one road and opening another, I'm not sure how far we can get."