Lack of action by Auckland City and some Herne Bay waterfront landowners could see ratepayers facing storm-damaged debris littering Herne Bay beaches over the summer.
Worst hit area for debris is the very popular Herne Bay Beach at the bottom of Herne Bay Road where fallen trees, wooden stairs and other building materials, clay and parts of former cliffs litter the southern end of the beach.
The worst slips are from properties with street addresses in Argyle St. However, other popular Herne Bay beaches; Home Bay, and Sentinel, also have slips. A major slip of trees and clay is visible from lower Curran Street.
To date, despite months of efforts by our association, neither the city nor the responsible landowners have committed to cleaning up the mess.
Auckland Council is saying it is the landowners’ responsibility to conduct the clean-up, while some of the landowners are saying on-going insurance issues from EQC, and Geotech matters might prevent any early fix. None of this helps getting these popular beaches back to full use by summer.
Most of the debris, the results of several storms and a summer cyclone, has fallen into and remains in what is known as the coastal marine area. The landward boundary of this area is marked on the title.
It’s quite complicated but in essence all of the area below high-water (riparian rights), as noted on the property titles, falls within the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, created by the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000. Schedule 3 of the Act contains a map that confirms all inner Waitemata harbour foreshore and coastal areas are included in this Marine Park.
Under the Park Act an organization called the Hauraki Gulf Forum was established as the statutory body to “promote and facilitate the integrated management, protection and enhancement of the Park”.
For the purposes of the clean-up, our legal advice is that Auckland Council is responsible for administering this Forum and must act on its behalf. This legal advice says that Auckland Council officers cannot hide behind a veneer of confusion between the responsibilities of the Forum or responsibilities of Auckland Council.
A review of recent minutes of the Forum indicates that the cleanup has neither been on the Forum’s agenda or has been the subject of members’ discussions.
However, once the cleanup has been undertaken, it is the Forum’s decision (here read Auckland Council) whether and to what extent it might wish to pursue rights of financial recovery against landowners whose property escaped and caused physical damage to the beaches and foreshore.
Our association has had more than 20 email communications with council officers; first to establish which officers are responsible, and then whether council will remediate the beaches. To date there has been no action on a cleanup.
We have dealt with a “Customer Issues Advisor”, “Regulatory Services” and a “Senior Compliance Officer.”
One council officer says that it is getting a quote to clean up the debris, but can’t say whether the council will conduct the cleanup, but stated that “ultimately the property owner was responsible for the clean-up and costs.”
This officer said in discussions with one responsible landowner, he was told that “no cleanup was possible before Christmas for geo-tech reasons.”
Another communication from Auckland Council to an affected landowner said that the safety issues from the debris concerned council and immediate action was required. However, the landowner stated EQC had deemed his area unsafe and they couldn’t do anything until Geotech engineers acted to stabilize the adjacent cliff. The beach is essentially flat and easily cleaned.
HBRAI’s concern is that the debris on the beach is likely to be dangerous from fallen building materials potentially hurting children playing on the beach. Our major worry is that this issue of the cleanup will drift and eventually just get put into the “too hard basket” by Auckland Council.
At the very least Auckland Council should issue a compliance notice to the responsible landowners.
We have asked Auckland City Waitemata ward councillor Mike Lee to assist us in this important matter. We have also contacted the Department of Conservation as the authority primarily responsible for the operation of the Hauraki Gulf.
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Published: 20 July 2023