Whatuwhiwhi reserve lease to holiday park sparks protest

Carolyn Snowden, one of those protesting against the FNDC's decision to lease part of Whatuwhiwhi's Perehipe reserve to the adjacent holiday park.

If the Far North District Council thought its compromise over the leasing part of the Perehipe reserve at Whatuwhiwhi would quell local anger, it was wrong.

A small protest was established on the reserve on Thursday, spokeswoman Caroline Snowden saying the council had not listened to its constituents.

The council had leased the reserve to the former owners of the Top 10 Holiday Park from 2006 to 2013 under what was described as a gentleman's agreement.

In exchange for use of the land for the summer overflow of campers, the park mowed the reserve and provided water for the public toilets, calculated by some in the community as worth around $9000 a year.

The protesters estimated that the extra sites within less than half of the reserve, which was now to be formally leased to Carrington Holiday Park Jade LP, which bought the property in 2013, would earn $60,000 a year in camping fees over the peak holiday season alone.

The park owner had applied to the council to lease the entire 3960sq m, but had reduced that to 1600sq m, which the council granted last month. As agreed with the council, it had removed a children's playground and a small building that the protesters said had been erected on the reserve illegally.

The protesters made it very clear last week that they wanted the reserve to be restored to public use in its entirety, and claimed to have strong community support for that stance.
Ms Snowden said the proposal to lease part of the reserve had attracted 249 submissions, 203 of them opposing it. Twenty-three agreed, with conditions, while of the other 23, eight of them were in favour.

"They've just given [the park] what they wanted. They have totally disregarded our wishes," Ms Snowden said.

"They've taken no notice whatsoever of what more than 80 per cent of the submitters said."

The park had been asked by the community to withdraw its lease request, but had not done so.

"What we say, what we think, what we feel is completely disregarded," she said.

Te Hiku Community Board chair Adele Gardner said there had been strong interest in the consultation, with many submissions received both for and against the proposal.

The amount that Carrington Holiday Park Jade LP would pay to lease part of the reserve would be determined once a valuation had been completed. The question of whether the park owners would continue to maintain the entire reserve, and supply water to the public toilets, was still under discussion.