Time to call on the kids again

OUT OF SIGHT (JUST): From planter pots to clothes to freezer baskets, a new dump is taking shape in the dunes at Ahipara.

Some years ago children at Ahipara School shamed their elders into desisting from dumping rubbish in a dip in the dunes, known as The Bowl, east of Kaka Street. Better than that, they sparked an effort by some in the community to remove the rubbish and restore the area to something approaching its natural state.

Old habits seemingly die hard, however. Now a new dump is taking shape a few hundred metres further along the beach, immediately north of the Mimiwhangata Stream, the collection last week ranging from clothing, planter pots, freezer baskets and general household rubbish to bottles, the remains of a surfboard, sheets of window glass, tyres and a couple of tents.

They were spread over several sites within a relatively small area, none of them more than a few metres from the beach and some visible from the high tide mark.

Most of the rubbish appeared to be reasonably fresh last week, and had clearly been dumped since the Ahipara Komiti Takutaimoana launched its 'We love our beach' campaign late last year, exhorting visitors and locals alike to show respect for the water, beach and dunes and the various forms of wildlife found there.

One Ahipara resident was incensed by what he had seen, telling the Northland Age that he had bagged up a pile of smelly rubbish, but three months later the situation had deteriorated.

"It's absolutely disgraceful," he said. "Why on Earth would people do this?"

The obvious answer might be that it saves them a couple of bucks at the tip, which is a five-minute drive away, and possibly closer for some dumpers than Mimiwhangata, but it wasn't only household rubbish that raised this resident's ire.

He also took offence at the habit some people had adopted of dumping kina and oyster shells on the beach, leaving not only an unsightly mess but a potential booby trap for the unwary with bare feet.