Council signals new approach to managing foreshore

“It is also an opportunity to improve the recreational and amenity values of the adjacent beach space,” he says.

“An alternative and improved coastal management option is likely to incorporate a more landward wall that retains the grassy reserve embankment, but takes advantage of a wider beach space to naturally accommodate wave energy, while still providing protection to the footpath during extreme events.”

Responding to criticism that the Algies Bay seawall withstood the storm better than the Snells wall, Klinac says Snells Beach is relatively free of hard coastal protection works, with reserve space and sandy recreational beach available over all tide conditions.

“This provides it with a character that is distinct from Algies Bay, which is dominated by hard coastal defences, including timber, rock and concrete seawalls, both private and council-owned.

“It is our intention to retain the more natural character of Snells Beach.”

Council expects to finish the interim remediation works next week, depending on weather conditions. The alternative longer-term option is being fast-tracked through the coastal assets renewals work programme and residents will be consulted on the plan later in the year.

Meanwhile, Local Government NZ president Stuart Crosby says it is time for the government to show leadership when it comes to adaption and managed retreat so local councils can adapt it to their community’s need.

“Climate change is not a problem for the future,” he says. “The country has been dealing with the effects of climate change for the better part of a decade.

“The Climate Adaption Act will play a critical role in how we future-proof our towns and cities, so it’s frustrating that it has lagged so far behind in the reform process. It shouldn’t take a deadly cyclone for the government to take action.”

Crosby says communities already in at-risk areas need far greater certainty around the likes of compensation, and councils need the levers to act on climate risks.

Adaptation plans

“It’s one thing to say that immediate measures will help us ‘build back better’ every time disaster strikes. But putting climate change front and centre of our planning system is actually the key to keeping communities safe in the long-term. “For a number of reasons, we haven’t seen that yet. Instead, councils find themselves staring down the barrel of reforms [the Resource Management Act, the Natural and Built Environments Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill] that will leave them with far less power to shape where we live, with inadequate tools to fund action.”

Auckland Council is developing a series of Shoreline Adaptation Plans (SAP) to cover the entire 3200km of Auckland’s coast by mid-2025. The plans consider the impacts of coastal hazards and climate change on council-owned land and assets over the next 100 years. They align with the Ministry for the Environment’s best practice guidance to establish ‘dynamic adaptive policy pathways’ and are being developed in collaboration with iwi, and community and stakeholder engagement. The plans consider four overarching strategies of ‘no active intervention’, ‘limited intervention’, ‘hold the line’ and ‘managed retreat’ over three time horizons of short (1-20 years), medium (20-60 years) and long-term (60-100 years). The development of SAP for the area from Martins Bay to Silverdale will be undertaken early next year.

NZ Post seeks new Wellsford agent after shock shop closure

Fears that Wellsford has lost retail post services for good after the sudden closure of the shop at 199 Rodney Street on April 12 are being allayed by NZ Post.

Head of retail operations Andrew McKenzie said last week it was actively looking for another agency to provide postal services and sales, after the relationship with its current operator ended suddenly “due to unforeseen circumstances”.

“NZ Post Shop Wellsford will no longer operate postal and bill paying services there, but we are already having positive conversations with other potential businesses in the community,” he said. “We are currently looking to partner with another agency as quickly as possible to bring post and bill pay services back to Wellsford and apologise for any inconvenience this has caused our customers.”

The first most Wellsford people knew about the closure was the posting of a ‘Closure of Postal Services’ notice on the shop window on Wednesday, April 12. It advised that, while PO boxes were staying where they were “until further notice”, the nearest postal, courier and bill pay services were now at the Warkworth Paper

Plus post shop or the NZ Post Centre at Kaiwaka Food Mart.

The closure was followed a flurry of frustrated and angry posts from Wellsford area residents on community social media pages, many of whom viewed the closure as another nail in the local retail coffin. However, NZ Post insists it is looking to set up a new agency in Wellsford as soon as possible, with PO boxes remaining at the old site in the meantime and the public post box outside the shop continuing to be cleared daily.

Info: NZ Post on 0800 501501

Fire chief Kevin Lawton (standing) and deputy chief

Nick Torkington say the arrival of the new appliance has injected a new level of enthusiasm at the station.

Inset, One of the benefits of the new appliance is that it has significantly more locker room for gear.