Coastal Erosion - Haumoana, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Walking on Water

Under siege from the sea and local authorities

Submission to Draft 10 year Plan
(07-05-2009)

Attention: Hastings District Council & Hawke’s Bay Region Council, regarding coastal erosion in the Haumoana-Te Awanga-Clifton communities

The two options of paying for 13 groynes or a managed retreat of properties under threat are not acceptable to the Haumoana - Te Awanga and Clifton communities.
The so-called options are seen as a betrayal of the communities impacted and a failure by the local authorities concerned to protect and work with ratepayers and residents to find a solution that has a positive outcome for all.
The ‘groyne’ option is clearly no option at all, and presenting it in the first place has created fear among the elderly and those who struggle to survive in the difficult economic climate as it is. The threat of a $26,000-$30,000 annual rates levy over several years is irresponsible, particularly when the local authorities appear convinced such an option would not receive Resource Management Act approval in the first place or achieve the desired outcome.
The local authorities preferred option is clearly a ‘managed retreat’ which ‘must begin quickly’. However, what has been presented to the communities to date fails to provide sufficient detail about where people would be relocated to, or a breakdown of costs for those impacted. Without further very specific information how can anyone make such a decision?
The proviso that if the retreat option is agreed to then no major private or public erosion protection works will be permitted. Will the sea just be allowed to take the next layer of houses and then the next street as the sea moves closer? Will there just be a pile of ugly rubble left where the houses were so the place looks like a bomb site? These questions need to be answered urgently.
Obviously there needs to be a plan for the 21 or so houses immediately under threat by either urgently building the sea wall and groyne that will directly impact them or moving some of them back closer to the road and undertaking a beautification and coastal strengthening project. This should be a project assisted by local authorities (at the very least streamlining resource consents) and suggest a fortified sea wall / walkway which would become part of a wider visionary sea wall and beautification project.
The alternatives that appear most attractive to this community have not be explored. A combination of fewer groynes at specific locations where they will have the most impact in protecting property and slowing the erosion problems, along with a well designed sea wall that doubles as a walking-cycling track?

Even the groynes if designed properly could have a walkway out to the sea so people can fish or just sit and enjoy the view not just a huge pile of ugly concrete blocks.
A well designed sea wall from Clifton to the river mouth based on engineering best practice (and there are plenty of examples worldwide) could become a major asset to this community and to the many thousands across Hawke’s Bay who use this area as a recreational ground for fishing, cycling, walking dogs, horse-riding or as part of a tourist link to the wineries, arts trail, golf course and Cape Kidnappers.
If lack of shingle is the problem, and shingle continues to be removed from rivers and at Awatoto, then perhaps there needs to be an urgent review to ensure a ‘tithe’ or one tenth of all metal extracted from these sources is returned to the Haumoana -Te Awanga coastline as part of a managed protection plan. This metal would be invaluable in providing the base for a sea wall or sea wall and groyne option.
The community would like to see a change of attitude by the local authorities concerned to work together with the people and the local experts who have already offered time, finance, equipment and expertise to try and resolve this impasse. Simply quoting the RMA, saying something is too expensive or dismissing new ideas is not acceptable. Currently the communities concerned feel they are not only under siege from the sea but from those bodies who are supposed to be representing them.
We believe that a visionary approach needs to be taken rather than conceding defeat. If a solution can be worked out for Haumoana-Te Awanga-Clifton it may be that this becomes a test case for other communities around the country struggling with similar issues, and something Hawke’s Bay (hopefully including Napier City Council) could be very proud of in the future. Think about the walkway along the New Plymouth foreshore that has won praise all round the world and lifted that city’s profile significantly as a tourist and people friendly city?

There is much more at stake here than has so far been revealed. Yes the nation is fascinated that a row of houses on the Te Awanga –Haumoana beach front are being gradually washed away and that attempts by residents to build their own defenses have been opposed by local authorities.

Of course before those houses were undermined by the sea, the road in front of them was also washed away. This is a 70-year old problem that has been swept under the carpet too long. Already along the coastline there are areas where the sea at varying times pours into endangered wetlands and streams. At low points or breaks in the primary dune high seas already come across the road and unless some serious ‘hard engineering’ solution (sea wall and groynes) is implemented inundation will continue.

As it has been clearly pointed out many times, Haumoana-Te Awanga and Clifton dropped in the Hawke’s Bay earthquake of 1931 while Napier rose over one metre. If the sea breaches the coastline currently under siege, and nothing is done to hold it back, it is likely to keep coming, taking row after row of houses and then the reclaimed land, and highly profitable vineyards and orchards will be under threat.

Well before then people across the country will be asking, why didn’t local authorities tasked with the safety and protection of the region do something to prevent this?

If Hastings District Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council are unable to come up with a constructive solution for the communities impacted then we suggest going out to tender to the wider marketplace for ideas that will work.
It is of great concern that representatives of this community have learned that in the 10-year District Plan there is hardly a mention of the Haumoana-Te Awanga-Clifton coastal erosion problems. On inquiring we have been informed that no money has been set aside for the area at all, which in itself is a rather damning indictment. The issues here have been known about and ignored for over seven decades.

Certainly it is clear the area is not highly valued by local authorities and if anything an after thought, perhaps a problem they would like to see go away, like the houses they want to remove. Clearly there’s room here for some fresh, innovative thinking. This community will not be ignored any longer.
If the Hastings District Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council persist in the ‘two-options = no option’ process then this community will go directly to the Minister of Local Government and the Minister for the Environment.

The community also reserves the right to engage in a public campaign to gauge support for the ‘sea wall’ or ‘sea-wall plus groynes’ options where a call will be made for local authorities to contribute a considerable amount (across the general regional rate as the area is a regional asset) toward that outcome, rather than levying the bulk of the costs on the citizens of the communities most impacted.

We believe the current options are shameful and not fitting for any local bodies to place before ratepayers, certainly not without a much more engaging consultation process that takes into account a wider range of solutions and the concerns of the people who will be most effected.

We would like the current two option decision making process halted until a positive, practical and more visionary solution is agreed on.

NB: A more detailed point by point proposal of action will be forthcoming, following the tabling of this report, once a further meeting of concerned citizens of Haumoana-Te Awanga and Clifton is held later this month. This follow-up submission will confirm support from clubs, citizens and ratepayers groups, business people, engineers and others who are concerned that this region is being neglected by the local authorities concerned. It will include technical drawings and specifications and offers of practical help in achieving a viable hard engineering option.
Prepared on behalf of concerned citizens from the coastal communities of Haumoana-Te Awanga and Clifton, following the first of a series of public meetings at the Haumoana Hall on Monday 4 May 2009 and a committee meeting on Wednesday 6 May 2009.

Contact person and convener:
Ann Redstone
Phone: 06-8750005
Email: agoodin@xtra.co.nz

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