Vehicles are now banned from specific areas of Northland’s beaches under toughened regional council rules.
Each summer, thousands of vehicles from Northland and beyond drive beaches along the region’s 3200 kilometre coastline.
The new rules kick in this week as part of the hot-off-the-press December 2023 Northland Regional Plan (operative in part).
The plan, signed off by the Minister of Conservation in October was formally voted into effect by Northland Regional Council (NRC) yesterday.
General rules applying to all Northland beaches have been beefed up, with the aim of protecting biodiversity such as shorebirds, shellfish and native plants.
The plan also includes new mapped vehicle exclusion zones with additional requirements.
Vehicles will not be allowed to drive on a beach or parts of a beach inside an exclusion zone.
NRC Pou tiaki taiao Ruben Wylie said the new rules meant driving vehicles would be allowed to continue on most of the region’s beaches, provided certain conditions were met.
“Key amongst these conditions is the protection of sensitive habitats and native plants and animals,” Wylie said.
“People will need to be mindful when driving on beaches to avoid sites that contain shellfish beds, bird nesting or roosting sites and indigenous vegetation, such as seagrass and saltmarsh,” Wylie said.
Wylie said vehicle use in the new exclusion zones had been further restricted to manage the risk to significant ecological areas and threatened species.
Any vehicles driving on Northland’s beaches where they shouldn't now risk fines of up to $500 for breaking the rules.
Vehicles cannot drive on pipi and cockle beds, or damage beds of other types of shellfish such as tuatua or toheroa. However, vehicles harvesting Ninety Mile Beach mussel spat are exempt.
The Regional Plan also says vehicles can only be on beaches if there is no disturbance or damage to indigenous or migratory bird nesting or roosting sites.
They cannot drive across seagrass meadows, saltmarsh or mangroves or their aerial roots.
Access to the foreshore is only allowed via authorised or existing lawful vehicle access points.
Vehicles are not allowed to be driven in these exclusion zones, other than for specified exceptions.
These include rescuing or burying a stranded whale or for mobility disability access (if displaying a mobility card).
They also include accessing private property. They also include launching or retrieving boats - although even that must be done at the foreshore’s “closest practicable point” in relation to vehicle access.
“It is not anticipated to involve using vehicles to travel hundreds of metres to the “best” or preferred area,” the plan said.
Wylie said the new Regional Plan rules applied only to the area of the beach below high tide, in line with the regional council's functions under the Resource Management Act.
“In some places, rules administered by a local council or the Department of Conservation may also apply,” Wylie said.
NRC was working with these agencies, NZ Police and tangata whenua on the implementation of the new rules, he said.
There would be a big emphasis on education around the new conditions this summer, before heading towards enforcement.
Important next steps included working with local communities around education about the new maps.
Langs Beach-based Northland Regional Council (NRC) councillor Rick Stolwerk said the new rules would be greatly appreciated by local people. The Ruakākā community had been waiting a long time for these.
Cr John Blackwell said it was important implementation was sorted ahead of the Christmas rush, when huge numbers of visitors, mostly from Auckland, headed north.
This would otherwise lead to locals enforcing the rules in their areas, which would be chaotic.
Cr Peter-Lucas Jones (Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto) said aspects of Ninety Mile Beach/Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē needed care when it came to vehicles on the beach.
Jones is an NRC representative on the co-governed Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē Board.
He said landowners were looking closely at beach access across the large areas of privately-owned Māori land behind Ninety Mile Beach, Jones,
He said it was important the public realised access across this land was a privilege not a right.
Whanau had closed some points of access.
Issues of liability when the public crossed private Māori land were part of their considerations.
By Susan Botting, Local Democracy Reporting
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air
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