This situation is untenable, especially after HBRC finally admitted their Port Company has some responsibility for Napier's erosion but my view is HBRC will not accept any liability because their Napier Port Company does not pay rates so, therefore, costs cannot be recovered.
This and other vague versions on record should not relieve any business operation from unforeseen operating expenses.
My understanding is both NCC and HBRC would have commissioned close to or more than 100 expensive expert reports on the HB coastline since 1996 with most on beach erosion north of the Napier port.
The reports found "an act of nature due to the 1931 earthquake" had caused a sudden loss of beach replenishment. No report determined the port shipping channel, dredged in 1973, is blocking all supplies of replenishment for Napier's northern beaches.
I believe that for some reason, the experts were not briefed or given access to recent local history until coastal scientist Dr Terry Hume presented conclusive evidence to a Port Consent Hearing in 2018.
Up to the early 1970s, the Harbour Board carted beach shingle from Perfume Point for reclamation to provide storage space and extracted small rocks from the surf zone along Hardinge Rd for shoring backfill under new wharves.
Coastal erosion along Hardinge Rd has needed attention since 1975 and Westshore Beach since 1978 when NCC councillorTownshend officially recorded erosion damage.
NCC and HBRC developed a unique Beach Nourishment Scheme which every year involved trucking in any cheap material.
From 1987 it was fine gravel, sand, silt and mud from the Ahuriri Estuary up to 1991, then loose stones skimmed off the beach crest at the north end of Marine Parade up to 2014 and since larger volumes of river shingle and small stones (a waste product) has been used to form a higher and wider sacrificial wall above the retreating high tide mark.
Both councils acknowledged in 2017 that this solution has failed to "hold the coastline".
The HB Harbour Board dredged the shipping channel over nine months during 1973.
In 1984, the Harbour Board chief engineer acknowledged (ref: Port and People) that the shipping channel was trapping sand that maintained Westshore Beach so dredged sand should not be dumped offshore. The port and both councils have rejected every assessment and submission since 2009.
The NCC one-page response to my 64-page submission on their 2021-31 LTP was simply "the future of coastal protection projects at Westshore will be guided by the Joint Coastal Hazard Strategy" and "NCC acknowledges the creation of the shipping channel is a contributor" plus "the conclusions by council scientists both agree and differ from those in your submission".
The HBRC one-page response to my 59-page submission on their 2021-31 LTP was simply "the views of council and the respondent remain disparate with respect to erosion in the Westshore area" and "there is significant work to be done including environmental impacts, public and private benefit, who pays and how it is funded by ratepayers" and "there will be future opportunity for consultation on coastal issues".
However, the recent HBRC LTP document "Time to Act" page 278 stated "Westshore coastal works are funded 50 per cent public/50 per cent private which reflects the fact that HBRC is unable to allocate costs for Westshore beach renourishment because there is uncertainty with regard to the impact of Port of Napier Ltd structures (the shipping channel) on rates of erosion".
I believe NCC acting on behalf of all ratepayers should insist the HBRC urgently repairs avoidable damage at Westshore Beach and not pass the burden onto others since inheriting the Napier Port operation on October 1, 1988.
HBRC should finally acknowledge vital harbour development has needlessly destroyed Napier's most popular sandy beach because they have failed to ensure all sand that moves past the Marine Parade in the "sediment drift" is blocked by their regularly deepened and widened shipping channel.
I challenge HBRC to take proper care of the coastal environment; restore replenishment for Napier's northern beaches by replicating the natural movement of nearshore sand by longshore currents. This will reinstate a precious recreational beach and return durable coastal protection for vast private and public assets. Get that sand back to where it belongs – if it takes pumping or "rainbowing" with equipment fitted to the current dredge – so be it – just do it.
• Larry Dallimore is an environmental campaigner and former Napier City councillor
