Matt’s Monologue
(Matt Holl is a former member of the Raglan Community Board)
Ian McKissak’s letters regarding new Lorenzen Bay waterside improvements are deserving of a response. His earlier comments were partially directed at council bureaucrats but of course the responsibility rests squarely with locally elected representatives.
As a community board member I took a look at the issue two years ago, taking with me another community board member as backup, and we had discussions with the then adjacent land owner to gain his knowledge on history, current status and views on resolution.
When I took the issue to the community board meeting I suggested we should look at all foreshore maintenance issues of council-administered land between Greenslade Rd and Opotoru Estuary. I mentioned hundreds of thousands of dollars had been invested in consolidating the base of the cliff on Cliff St, that wave energy had caused a lot of the rocks to migrate from the Cliff base out on to the beach. As a first step I suggested we could ask a group such as the Rugby Club if they may like to move the rocks back to the base of the cliff for a financial contribution to the Rugby Club.
The then chairperson ruled it would require a resource consent and closed discussion of the topic. Not one community board member raised a point of order suggesting maintenance of these assets could be a worthwhile agenda item.
When travelling east across Opotoru bridge one can see a rock-and-roll gaggle of rocks that were once supporting Wainui Rd now out on the mudflats. The Cliff St foreshore has had a recent slip. The road next to the boardwalk at the wharf has collapsed. The western base of the wharf reclamation has lost substantial rock support and those rocks are now sitting out on the mudflat for all to see.
I did attempt to progress the issue a second time by suggesting to the community board that we have a section of our meetings where we can nominate future agenda items and have, say, a 6-month draft of upcoming agenda items. That has not been implemented.
Every day is a new beginning and we have a new community board. A stitch in time saves nine.
Matt Holl
Raglan
