Paradise lost for all but the chosen few

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Jamieson Bay, 15km south of Warkworth, has an air of privacy about it - enough for first-time visitors to think they are intruding on some lucky bach-owners' slice of paradise.

The feeling of an exclusive enclave is reinforced when you look for a way down to the deliciously blue Mahurangi Harbour.

There's a steep and narrow road running down to the sea but it looks like a shared driveway.

At the start is a sign declaring "private property". The message is: Move on stranger - no beach access.

But don't be fooled, says Jamieson Bay resident Michael Cole. The sign is just a trick to deny the public access to the beach.

Visitors should be able to drive down to the beach because it's a right of way, a council road.

Mr Cole, a resident for 30 years, said he had the Rodney District Council round to remove such signs as recently as June 8.

But it would not touch the present sign because it stood on a neighbour's property, not on the council's road.

Some other signs had disappeared, he said, and neighbours blamed the Cole family because they had spoken out against signs that misled people. He said that in revenge for the most recent sign removal, a resident had taken a chainsaw to a "For Sale" sign outside the Cole home.

His family were one of only three of 40 property-owners to support the public's right of access to the beach.

They were appalled when non-residents who drove down to the beach were "accosted, parked-in and abused".

Mr Cole said he was sad to be selling the house but he could not stay somewhere that was trying to be a "gated community".

"A different type of people has moved in - they want to enjoy the place and keep it to themselves."

A group of property owners under the banner of the Mahurangi Improvement Society went to court to get the right of way declared private.

But in February the High Court ruled in favour of the council providing public access to the foreshore.

Council delivery manager Suzanne Booth said individuals had the right to erect "private property" signs on their own land.

The sign removed recently was on the access way designated to be used by the public and local property owners to reach the foreshore and their properties.

Ms Booth said the access way had been in dispute for 20 years and the council was doing its utmost to resolve the problems through a working party with representatives of the improvement society and the Friends of Mahurangi group.

Community group leaders declined to respond to Mr Cole's statements.

They said talks were at a delicate stage in their attempt to resolve the main problem - that the formed access way lies partly outside the surveyed legal easement.

Property owners who were served by the right of way previously took the view that the council would be trespassing on private land if it allowed public vehicles on the access.

They now agree to seek court approval to have the alignment formalised, along the route used since the subdivision 40 years ago. A separate walkway will be provided.

Ms Booth said Jamieson Bay had a tiny reserve and beach and parking restrictions would have to be looked at. The bay is near the Mahurangi West Regional Park.