Takapuna Golf Course v Auckland Council: ‘Misinformation is causing a lot of stress’

Takapuna Golf Course, a popular public course in Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

A last-minute bid to stop the council turning half the Takapuna Golf Course into a wetland that can hold floodwater in heavy rain has failed. In the process, two councillors have come out swinging – angry words, not golf clubs – against each other. And the mayor is siding with one of them.

The golf course is situated on AF Thomas Park, beside the Northern Motorway, in the middle of the area worst affected by the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods in January 2023. Directly to the north is the Wairau Valley, where two people died. Across the motorway to the east is the suburb of Milford, which still has more uninhabitable homes because of those floods than any other part of the city.

The councillor fronting the plan to create the flood-detention sink is Richard Hills, chair of the council’s Policy and Planning Committee. He also represents the North Shore ward, which includes the golf course, Wairau Valley and Milford.

Both he and the mayor have accused councillor Wayne Walker, who is involved with the golf-course bid, of giving “false hope” to the golfers.

Walker is from Albany, the neighbouring ward to the north. He joined with the Takapuna Golf Course to put forward the “Shoal Bay Solution”: a proposal to build a pressurised tunnel under the motorway and an open, 13-metre-deep canal down its east side.

The pipe and canal would carry floodwater to Shoal Bay, the large tidal inlet between the motorway just north of the bridge and the suburbs of Takapuna, Belmont and Bayswater.

Hills told the Herald the council has known for some time that this option is not workable. It adopted its own plan in April, following public consultation and extensive engineering studies, and confirmed in July.

It was reconfirmed last Friday following an analysis of the Shoal Bay Solution. Barry Potter, the council’s director of resilience and infrastructure, says the council analysis has been peer-reviewed by independent consultants.

Auckland Council officials Tom Mansell (left) and Barry Potter, with councillor Richard Hills (right), at a public meeting in the Wairau Valley to discuss the future of the park. Photo / Corey Fleming

“Whether councillor Wayne Walker gave the golfing community false hope on purpose I’ll never know,” Hills told the Herald. “But as this was discounted as part of the original 100 options looked at, the misinformation is causing a lot of stress.”

Mayor Wayne Brown used similar language. Walker, he said, “is a great provider of false hopes”.

The Herald asked Walker to respond. He replied: “I believe their solution [the Shoal Bay Solution] is workable.” He described it as “far more resilient”, although he added he had not seen the report or supporting papers on which the council based its final decision.

He also said, “The community has been given significant ‘false hope’ by Auckland Council,” and, “The mayor’s fixit proposals are those promoting false hope.”

Officials are now proceeding with the council plan. The golf course will close, although Hills says the driving range is likely to remain open. The council will establish a wetland environmental and recreational area on about half the area, able to hold 550 million litres of water.

The whole park is zoned for recreational use and there is no proposal to change that. The Kaipātiki Local Board will decide what recreational purposes to enable on the rest of the land.

Local board deputy chair Danielle Grant says public consultation on this will open in October 2025. That means the decision will be made by the incoming board, following council elections that month.

Grant, who is standing for the ward in the election, says her own position is, “I support golf, and I support the need to mitigate the significant flooding in our Wairau catchment.”

Hills says he thinks a driving range and nine-hole golf course are likely. Golf Warehouse founder Eric Faesenkloet has already proposed this and Brown told the Herald he is meeting with Faesenkloet this week.

Auckland councillor Wayne Walker. Photo / Supplied

Some of the strongest opposition to the Shoal Bay Solution comes from the New Zealand Transport Agency, which has legal responsibility for maintaining the efficient operation and resilience of all state highways, including the motorway.

“We don’t support any option that would negatively impact the state highway given its nationally significant function,” said NZTA in its report to council.

“Modelling indicates it would increase flooding risk to critical transport infrastructure,” and could “potentially impact any future additional harbour crossing”.

Mayor Brown put that into his own words. “They want to put a 13m pressurised pipe under the motorway, just so someone can play golf.”

He said it would likely be more expensive and it was the “fourth effort” by the golf course, which has “descended through the ranks of engineers”.

“It’s haywire stuff. There is plenty of evidence that this is not a serious suggestion. People should take it with the same degree of confidence as my advice to [professional golfer] Ryan Fox about how to play golf.”

Iwi are also opposed. Edward Ashby from Te Kawerau ā Maki, one of three iwi with direct links to the area, said they have “always been open to any option”, but this one doesn’t measure up.

“We don’t agree in principle that taking a water source from one catchment [draining to Hauraki Gulf via Milford], and artificially redirecting it via pipes to another catchment [direct to Waitematā] is tikanga,” he said.

He explained that Wairau means “abundance of water” and the water from that catchment has been directed into the Hauraki Gulf by volcanic rock “for a very long time”.

“Tikanga means we tend to go with the flow,” he said. He added that the expert advice rejecting the engineering proposals of the Shoal Bay Solution was also important.

Brian Blake from the Eventfinda Stadium said the council had “made the best, and very tough, decision”.

He pointed out that when it came to considering “community” interest, they had 448,122 visitors in the year to June last year. That’s considerably more than the tens of thousands who use the golf course each year.

The floods during that 2023 storm caused $6 million in damages and loss to the stadium. “If we flood again,” said Blake, “it’s very possible the insurers will walk away.” That would force the stadium to close.

Flooding on Porana Rd in Wairau Valley, Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Debbie Dunsford of the Milford Residents Association also welcomed the decision. “We’re pleased Wairau flood prevention work will proceed without delay,” she said.

“We think the council and its consultants have explained the various reasons why the golf club’s Shoal Bay Solution is not viable. There will still be nine holes available.”

Dunsford also welcomed the council’s decision to review golf facilities across the city. Walker told the Herald there are only two public courses in Auckland. But a report by consultancy Martin Jenkins in 2018 listed 12, of which eight had low fees for casual players, the same or very similar to those at Takapuna.

With the election looming, the council’s decision might be “final” but it won’t be the last we hear of it.

Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.