The river mouth near Waikawa Beach can change course with tide and wind. Photo / Rachel Low
The river mouth near Waikawa Beach can change course with tide and wind. Photo / Rachel Low
The ongoing issue of vehicular beach access to Waikawa Beach is threatening to divide the small coastal community.
The emotive topic of whether or not people should continue to have the right to access the beach by vehicle remains unresolved, with arguments for and against.
Some want to protect the right of all people to access the beach with a vehicle for fishing and recreational activities and the need for permanent vehicle access in the event of an emergency.
Others believe vehicles polluted the beach and had a detrimental impact on dune flora and fauna, sea animals, and shellfish beds, and had seen and felt threatened by reckless driving.
For the last six months locals have been unable to access the beach and Horowhenua District Council was tasked with finding a resolution. Surveys have shown about a 70-30 split in favour of continued beach access.
HDC recently received a massive amount of public submissions - 446 - on the issue. The public gallery was packed yesterday for a council meeting that gave submitters an opportunity to speak to those submissions.
The most recent council report said finding a solution that addressed the concerns of both camps while preserving the integrity of the beach and ensuring public safety was not only challenging “but crucial for fostering unity and harmony within the community.
“Council has received reports indicating a divided community, with some residents reporting that this topic has caused a deep sense of frustration and discord among residents,” the council report said.
For the last 30 years there had been public vehicle access to the beach purely through the goodwill of private landowners at the end of Manga Pirau St, who had never sought recognition or financial gain.
In recent years maintaining that access point had eroded as the Waikawa River mouth changed shape with wind and tide.
The goodwill of the landowners was also eroded when members of the community began removing concrete bollards with heavy machinery and creating their own tracks through the land, damaging vegetation and eroding dunes.
Concrete bollards at the end of Manga Pirau St in 2021.
The landowners had simply asked beach users to respect that access was granted on the basis that vehicles and motorbikes stick to defined tracks. Now, any option involving river diversion at that entrance is off the table.
Horowhenua District Council will now go back to the drawing board requesting that CEO Monique Davidson report back on alternative beach access options while also considering the option of no vehicle access.
In 2021 a group of residents began lobbying HDC for a new route to the foreshore and a long-term solution to beach access and presented 158 signatures of support, suggesting council-owned land at the end of Reah MacKay Drive as a suitable option.
Ironically, the petition and process forced council to look at a range of options, including the possibility of restricting vehicle access, and the Reay MacKay Drive accessway option wasn’t among the final list.
As part of that process HDC held a series of workshops and engaged the services of environmental consultants Boffa Miskell to work with council staff.
Back then five options were scored on their environmental, cultural, well-being and fiscal value. It had considered a Reay MacKay option then, and also an option to build a new bridge.
The process saw the Reay MacKay access option dropped as it would trigger strong opposition from residents in that area, while the bridge option - expected to cost $3.3 million in 2021 - was also dropped due to the likelihood it was cause high ecological disturbance.
That left two similar options involving river “training” at the end of Manga Pirau, and a third option to not facilitate vehicle access but to support pedestrian access through established pathways on council-owned land.
At the conclusion of the meeting Mayor Bernie Wanden thanked the gallery for the respectful way they had listened to contrary points of view and ensured those present that council would be working hard to find a resolution.
Waikawa Beach has an estimated population of 180 people.
