Harbour iwi called to hui on land plan

Photo / Richard Robinson

Auckland Council officers are trying to organise a hui with Manukau Harbour iwi to allay concerns about a $28 million land reclamation plan aimed at improving Onehunga's foreshore.

They hope to hold the hui with leaders of seven iwi before an open day on July 16, at which contractor Fulton Hogan will put a specimen design for the 6.4ha reclamation up for public comment.

The council and the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board want to develop a park including four sandy beaches to make the rocky and inaccessible foreshore look more like what was lost to motorway development about 30 years ago.

It has obtained $18 million from the Transport Agency for that purpose, as partial mitigation for the new $230 million duplicate traffic crossing of the Manukau Harbour, which included widening the Southwestern Motorway between Hillsborough and Mangere.

But the principle of land reclamation is worrying Manukau iwi, who are in negotiations with the Crown over Treaty of Waitangi recommendations for cleaning up a harbour that has been polluted by previous shoreline encroachments.

These are expected to clear the way in the next two years for legislation for the governance of the harbour, possibly through a co-management organisation of iwi and local and central government agencies modelled on the new Waikato River Authority.

Iwi representatives have indicated they would be keen to meet the council, although they retain concerns about yet another reclamation.

Ngati Te Ata Waiohua resource management heritage manager Karl Flavell said his iwi was opposed to any reclamations, particularly on the scale proposed, and had concerns about a lack of thorough consultation thus far.

But he was pleased about the hui and a positive meeting already held with representatives of the Onehunga Enhancement Society, with whom his iwi share an ambition to see the harbour cleaned up.

"That's why we're engaging with the Crown to discuss and negotiate a management regime to do that - we've pushed a clean-up of the harbour for decades," he said.

Ngati Tamaoho Trust representative Ted Ngataki said he believed restoring the coastline to more natural-looking beaches was a good idea "but we don't think it needs to take in half the harbour to do it".

He was pleased the proposed reclamation would be smaller than an 11ha plan originally promoted by the Onehunga society, but needed to be satisfied it would not worsen the harbour's water quality.

Ngati Paoa Trust chairman George Kahi said his iwi would keep an open mind on any foreshore beautification project supported by the community, but he was disappointed not to have been consulted earlier.

Onehunga society chairman Jim Jackson, who was last week elected head of a new organisation to be called the Manukau Harbour Restoration Society, said there would be no comparison with past reclamations.

"This reclamation will be high-quality appropriate material and will provide 6ha of open public space which won't replicate the foreshore but will go a long way to restoring what we had 30-odd years ago."