Environment just an excuse for evictions'

Tipene Marr. Photo / APN

A coastal village has faced eviction in a political push to turn the coastline into public land and not to protect the environment, a regional councillor has said.

Almost 30 houses on an estuary's edge at Little Waihi, in the Bay of Plenty, were served eviction notices by landowner Te Arawa Lakes Trust in May, saying their sewage was damaging the environment.

The potential uprooting of the villagers, some of whom had lived in their houses for generations, received widespread publicity.

This month Environment Bay of Plenty granted resource consent to build a treatment plant, leading many villagers to feel confident the tables have turned in their favour.

Now Te Arawa Lakes trustee Tipene Marr, a regional councillor who opposed the evictions, has said that the sewage issue was brought up so a public reserve could be built around the estuary's edge.

"That was the whole point of the evictions. Not to build any more houses, but to put a riparian strip around the edge to walk along," Mr Marr said yesterday.

The push had come from the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, he said.

"It's the same old thing, when the council decide they want to do something, they bring up something and say it's an environmental disaster.

"They want to make a public strip, so they need to retire 29 houses and take them away."

Lessening the impact of the sewage was part of the reason for creating the strip, but it was also to secure it for the public, Mr Marr said.

"It was: Let's make a strip along there so we can all walk on it. Public access to all New Zealanders - one of John Key's pushes."

The policy was also being promoted in the regional council, Mr Marr said. "You can see it in memos coming through from Wellington, they want access for all people."

A consultation was deciding whether the eviction notices would be rescinded, he said.

Resident Jack Elsworth, Little Waihi's unofficial "mayor", said there would be no justification to evict once sewage treatment was in place.

That consent had been granted showed the tables had turned since the eviction notices were served, Mr Elsworth said.

"It's all to our benefit. Quite a few people in the village are very relieved. It has been stressful for a lot of us."

The water's edge did not have to be turned into a reserve because the public already had access, he said.

Plans to build a sewage treatment plant have been churning through council machinery since an environmental report in 1997.

The plant will cost about $15 million, two-thirds of which will come from a government subsidy that has been in place for years.

Appeals are due in two weeks and are likely the only remaining obstacles for the proposal.

Te Arawa Lakes Trust has agreed to a commercial lease for land to build the plant.

An appropriate spokesman at the district council could not be reached to comment on the council's role in pushing to create a public reserve.