Waimārama Beach: Hawke’s Bay man won’t unblock road even if Hastings District Council meets demand for more than $200k

Public access along a sealed road at Waimarama Beach has been blocked off. Photo / Warren Buckland

RNZ

A landowner is so frustrated with a council over access to a beach he will not now accept thousands of dollars in payment even if it is offered.

The man has installed boulders blocking an access point to the popular Hawke’s Bay beach, Waimārama.

Domain Beach Road runs parallel to Waimārama Beach - but it is also on Eru Smith’s land, at the Waimārama Holiday Park.

Smith said he has now given up fighting the council over the use of his land after seeking compensation over the past three decades.

The Hastings District Council put the road there 40 years ago, he said.

Smith had been asking the council to pay $8000 a year to lease the road, topped up with a further $200,000 in backpay.

But even if it came to the party now, it was unlikely he would accept, he said.

“I’ll live another 20 years, but I’m not gonna fight them for that long, they’ll owe me more money.”

He has chosen instead to block the road so the public could not use it.

“I told them, I’m over it, and I’m gonna block the road,” Smith said.

“Fight’s over now, and we’re never gonna remove them. I don’t care if they come and offer me what I wanted, I still won’t take them off the road.”

It was the principle of the matter that bothered him, but there were also health and safety issues, he said.

“If anyone gets hurt in a crash on that road, we’ll be liable because it’s on our property.”

Residents were mostly in his corner, Smith said.

There were gaps between the boulders so walkers and cyclists could get through, and there were other nearby access points to Waimārama Beach, he said.

“While I was doing it, I spoke to six people. Two of them were anti, and the other ones supported me.

“They know I’ve been fighting the council for years.”

The council was “in discussions” with Smith to try to find a solution, it said in a statement, but could not comment on the content of those discussions.

“The sealed drive through the domain is not legally speaking a road, and people have driven over a portion of the camping ground’s land for many years at the pleasure of the landowners whose section runs from Harper Road to the beach,” it said.

“They [the owners] are now exercising their private property rights.”

While people were not required to put up private property signs, the council would install some to advise the accessway was closed, to clarify the issue for the public.

Boulders were also recently installed at Tiakitai Rd by other locals who wanted to stop people driving on the beach - and although Smith supported what they had done, he had nothing to do with it, he said.

The only similarity was the boulders themselves, which were obtained from the nearby quarry.