Tairua with Pepe Reserve pictured.
A proposed swimming pontoon in Tairua’s Pepe Estuary has been hit with extra costs for an environmental assessment.
Tairua Residents and Ratepayers Association earlier this year asked the Tairua-Pauanui Community Board to support and identify a funding position for the installation of a budgeted $10,500 pontoon on the Pepe Estuary.
The Tairua-Pauanui Community Board this week agreed to funding of $900 for an environmental assessment after the association confirmed costs and consideration for an environmental assessment were not submitted in the original business case.
Pāuanui, on the opposite side of the Tairua River, has a swimming raft in place at Royal Billy Point, installed in December 2020, that didn’t require an environmental assessment, which is why it had not been budgeted for.
The association had also learned the Waikato Regional Council might also charge for pre-application advice at $145 an hour.
“We don’t have control over whether they will or won’t but are managing this process as much as we can through limiting contact.”
At the meeting, Tairua-Pauanui Community Board member and Thames-Coromandel deputy mayor Terry Walker said the association now had a lot of work to do.
There were a number of considerations that formed part of the overall assessment required for the consent application including confirmation from the regional harbourmaster regarding any navigation safety related aspects.
That had been received and the regional harbourmaster had no navigational issues.
Waikato Regional Council had provided advice on the level of detail required for the environment assessment, given the location and nature of proposed activity and advice on a person suitably qualified to do the assessment
Once that had been completed, the association would notify and seek views from local iwi groups who had applied for customary marine title in the area.
The association would confirm the mooring system for the structure and modifications required to make it fit for purpose.
The person identified to undertake the work was Dr Hilke Giles of Pisces Consulting, a coastal and systems scientist known to the Waikato Regional Council and familiar with the site for the proposed structure.
“While we anticipate that the pontoon will have very minimal environmental effects and although consenting requirements might appear onerous, Waikato Regional Council have little discretion to circumvent these requirements.
“The approach we’ve taken to reduce costs is to seek agreement on a scope for the application and technical reporting elements with Waikato Regional Council in advance of preparing the application.
“In this regard Dr Giles has been in touch with the Waikato Regional Council and has a good understanding of what is required; her familiarity with the proposed location for the structure is also helpful.”
Primary costs for the installation of the pontoon showed $7000 had been quoted for a suitable swimming raft that would require minimal refurbishment.
It had been found at Pauanui Waterways, the same place Pauanui sourced its pontoon from.
The cost for a resource consent, estimated at $1000, could potentially be reimbursed. Funding for the consent had been approved by the community board.
Another $500 had been determined for incidental costs including moving the pontoon from its current site to Tairua.
Ladder and mooring system costs were yet to be determined.