Vehicles will soon be banned from accessing a scenic stretch of South Wairarapa coastline for at least two years, but pedestrians and cyclists will still be allowed.
At a bylaw deliberations meeting on Wednesday, South Wairarapa District councillors agreed to scrap its initial proposal which aimed to ban all access to an unformed legal road in the Cape Palliser area for three years.
Council chief executive Janice Smith said the initial proposal would not have been enforceable and “could have led to legal challenge”.
The paper road, which gives public access to a stretch of South Wairarapa coastline, traverses both privately-owned Māori land and Crown land managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
It had historically been used by the public for access to remote coastal areas, including surf breaks and parts of Aorangi Forest Park, but the area had suffered extensive environmental damage due to the misuse of the road to access private land by four-wheel drives, quad bikes, and illegal campers.
At a pre-meeting briefing, Haami Te Whaiti, chair of Ngāti Hinewaka and trustee of some of the affected land blocks, said the bylaw was a critical measure to protect sacred land and would enable the council to meet its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
He said the only acceptable option was to exclude all motorised vehicles.
Deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter said one of the things that struck her during the consultation process, which attracted 3500 submissions, was “the genuine passion and love for the area”.
“We are not here because the vast majority of people want to vandalise or disrespect the area,” she said.
“They love it, value it, and see it for the incredible piece of nature it is.”
She said there were “a few bad eggs”, but that most people wanted to find positive pathways forward.
“We need to take action, we need to move forward, and we need to take responsibility for what is ours which is the paper road and address the concerns of our community as well.”
Sadler-Futter noted that the bylaw was restricted to access of the paper road only and that permission to access private land would still need to be sought from landowners.
“The privately-owned land and the paper road are two separate things,” she said.
“At the moment, we have a merging of those two things because one is not clearly defined from the other.”
Councillors voted in favour of immediately surveying and defining the route and erecting signage.
A motion raised by councillor Aidan Ellims to adopt a two-year bylaw that would have allowed access to pedestrians, non-motorised wheeled devices, quad bikes, and side-by-side vehicles failed to win over a majority of councillors.
Instead, a motion to ban all motorised vehicles – except for e-bikes – passed.
Ellims voted against and councillor Alistair Plimmer abstained.
The bylaw would be adopted by the full council at its meeting on October 8.
Councillors also agreed that a stakeholder access group be “invited to consider options for future access and use” of the paper road.
This group would consist of Ngāti Hinewaka, Ngāwi community/ratepayers association, council, the Rural and Coastal Advisory Group, DOC, Outdoor Access Commission, Heritage NZ, and the New Zealand Four Wheel Drive Association.
The council would also work with DOC “with urgency” to publicise that camping was not permitted at Stonewall Scenic Reserve.
“What we heard repeatedly across a number of submissions is 'we need vehicle access through this paper road to take our camping equipment to Stonewall because if we can't, how are we possibly going to carry our camping equipment to this specific location?” Sadler-Futter said.
“What DOC have been very quiet on is waving a flag that says actually you aren't meant to camp here.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
SHARE ME