Road closure rankles Gedge

Eastern Courier

Driving into the Omana Reserve for a summer picnic will soon be a thing of the past.

The Clevedon Community Board recently voted under delegated authority to permanently close the road as part of the Beachlands-Maraetai coastal walkway development.

A similar decision 18 months ago spurred public outcry. Since then considerable debate and consultation was carried out including a $10,000 consultation report by Judy Longdill and a working party.

For board member Lance Gedge, who was the only member who voted against the road closure, the Longdill report was key.

It found that 65 percent of respondents wanted the road to remain open and 25 percent didn’t.

Board member Logan Kemp and councillor Maggie Burrell declined to vote citing possible conflicts of interest.

"It was quite fascinating because it left four of us and I was the only board member left to vote who actually lives in Maraetai," Mr Gedge says.

In favour of the closure were John Cashmore, who lives in Orere Pt, Mark Balemi from Clevedon and board chairman Maurice Hinton, who resides in Whitford.

Mr Gedge says he’s personally very disappointed.

Mr Hinton thinks it was the right decision. In the absence of anyone putting a motion he says he moved to construct the walkway and close the road.

"Having weighed up all the information, having sat through the working party and viewed the consultation, that’s the decision that came out. I think it’s about looking to the future as well as the present. To build an asset and destination for the future.

"It defies logic to have a reserve, playground and beach with a road running through the middle of it," Mr Hinton says.

Former working party member Keith Walker has lived in Maraetai his entire life and says worries about the future and safety are unfounded.

"It’s never been an issue. You won’t be able to park up on the grass and have a picnic any more, but park and drag all your stuff in."

"The thing that really nailed it home for me was that as part of the Longdill report they phoned 10 random people from Maraetai and 10 from Beachlands and everyone wanted the road open."

Pohutukawa Coast Community Association chairman Grant George says a compromise in the form of a one way road was in order.

"Everything was going swimmingly until the meeting."

He says the board has the right to do what it did, but "it was clear that not just locals but people Manukau-wide wanted it open".

"It is restricting certain people from access to that beach and it’s not on. It’s a big change. We couldn’t understand why a compromise wasn’t taken."

The association will decide on its next step at this month’s meeting.

Parks development manager Johan Ferreira expects reasonable public acceptance of their plans.

"To narrow the road itself we’ll have to go to the community to talk about the changes. In the meantime we’re progressing the consent for the Spinnaker Bay side and the Te Puru bridge will be open in the next few weeks."

Mr Ferreira says the coastal walkway surface will be pipe-rolled concrete.

The effect is almost like a light breeze on the water’s surface, he says.

A completion date is not yet finalised.