Golf club blasts trust over cabins at springs

RENTALS: Four cabins put up on the Hamurana Springs reserve by a local Maori trust. PHOTO/FILE

The president of the Hamurana Springs Golf Club has criticised the local trust that owns the land, saying it should have consulted the club before setting up camp near the course.

Club president Ngahi Bidois, who affiliates with Ngati Rangiwewehi which owns the land, said four cabins placed on the Hamurana Springs Reserve, which are not currently in use, had nothing to do with the golf club and were put there by Te Tahuhu o Tawakeheimoa Trust.

Hamurana Springs was returned to Ngati Rangiwewehi as part of a multimillion-dollar Treaty settlement last year.

The trust has placed four portable cabins on the reserve for rental purposes.

International tour groups who visit the springs will also be charged $10 a head.

"Fundamentally, they [the trust] have gone ahead and done whatever they like with little consultation. We have had nothing to do with it. I just wanted people to know that Hamurana Golf Club has nothing to do with those cabins, they have just come in and put them in," Mr Bidois said.

The club had not been told the trust planned to use the club's bathroom and cooking facilities, he said.

"We were told they were putting cabins there, nothing to do with power being connected.

"We gave them a key and they put an office in our clubroom. There were negotiations about painting the place, but we came back and it was just painted."

Te Tahuhu o Tawakeheimoa Trust general manager Te Rangikaheke Bidois said the golf club building now belonged to the trust, which was paying the club a courtesy by allowing it to operate, she said.

"The formal arrangement with the golf club is that they have 12 months to play golf and manage their club on the premises.

"The buildings on the premises belong to the trust, they are here at the trust's courtesy."

Mrs Bidois said the club was consulted about painting the room - which the club will be invoiced for - but acted more quickly than the club expected.

"We have paperwork that shows we did have a discussion. We did go faster than they were expecting and they were consulted."

Mr Bidois said the trust had also suggested that it run the golf course.

"When they came to the AGM they guaranteed 12 months of the golf club. At our last meeting they have said to us that they would look to run the golf course and have us as the golf club, but we are at a stage now [where we are] looking through our options.

"Our options are that we leave. They are obviously showing they are making decisions without consulting us and we can't run a business if they are not consulting us. The other option is they run the whole thing.

"I personally can't support them and us running the place - why would we run a golf club with someone who can't get resource consent for something at the golf course? This group have been a disappointment to the iwi."

Mrs Bidois refuted claims the trust had not been consulting with Ngati Rangiwewehi.

"Currently, the number of things we attend are not in the wider iwi forum, but the iwi has its forums. If he hasn't been to those forums that is his own fault," she said. "At the end of the day the trust is working well ... and the trust also has not had the opportunity to provide a full comprehensive report back [to the iwi]. Our chairperson Anaru Bidois has called it for March 22. Our trust has been preparing for this major hui. Most, if not all, of the trust's activities will be reported back to the iwi in that meeting."