It has been a busy year for the Ōpito Bay Ratepayers Association, even in the context of Covid and the recent lockdowns.
A significant time was taken up with the Scallop Rāhui, including regular meetings with Legasea and other project participants, by Zoom and in person. An interesting by product of the rāhui was the rebranding of the Whitianga Scallop festival to the Oceans festival. We met several times with Linda Bird and her team, and it was really amazing to see how quickly they lent their support to the rāhui, despite a huge amount of extra work for them in terms of both branding and sourcing. Obviously the 2021 festival was wrecked by Covid, but we will be providing all the support we can for their 2022 plans.
We have also had a fair amount of interaction with TCDC, and it is appropriate to record our gratitude for the work Heather Bruce does in her role as Community co-ordinator for Mercury Bay North. Heather is always happy to hear from us (or at least she pretends she is!) and has been unfailingly helpful in both representing our views, offering advice and navigating the TCDC labrynth. It is worth noting that Heather has given up her weekend time to attend several of our recent general meetings, which is much appreciated.
Our main work with TCDC this year has centred around two old chestnuts – freedom camping and the Moloks. We were surprised to hear that the review of the Reserve Management Act by TCDC resulted in potential implications for freedom camping at Moore Crescent, particularly given the huge amount of work that went into achieving prohibition in 2015. We even touted the idea of “purchasing” the reserve as an innovative way of addressing the FC issue without impacting any other access or use, but in the end our “prohibited” signs have been reinstated and we had a trouble free summer.
We were not successful in retaining the Moloks – even a vigorous rearguard action led by Whangapoua ratepayers could not prevent their removal. There was a strong majority in the bay for retention, and we should note the generosity of the Matapaua Bay Road residents who supported the retention despite the traffic and noise impact they suffered from the very regular deliveries to the Moloks. This issue is probably now closed – we seem to have got through the summer period with the increased collections OK, and several of our ratepayers have been jumping quickly on TCDC to point out any failure in the collection schedule – thank you to them, and they certainly had an effect!
We finally managed to get the security camera installed at the entrance to the Bay. Technology has moved on since this idea was first touted, and we were able to get exactly what we need for a fraction of the price quoted a few years ago. Thank to Glen Sycamore for managing the whole process, and to Sue Edens for “hosting” the camera. There were some questions around privacy raised by ratepayers, but hopefully everyone is now happy that there is a robust and appropriate policy in place.
The defibrillators funded by OBRA were used again this year – unfortunately without success in a tragic incident in January. OBRA continues to fund the requisite maintenance and parts replacement for these, as well as the Epi pens.
We are currently working with TCDC on two issues, being:
- implementation of a reduced speed limit in the Bay
- identification of alternative Helicopter Emergency landing sites.
We are all conscious of the issues posed by traffic, particularly at busy times, with kids playing and enjoying the sort of freedoms hard to come by these days. There are several locations in the Bay where the current speed limit makes blind corners a serious danger, and even the straight parts of the road are challenging for kids with vehicles moving at or above 50km/hour. Chris Severne is talking to the roading manager, and will be seeking community inout on this issue. It was great to see the Kūaotunu community take things into their own hands and set up a “zebra” crossing outside Luke’s – a real triumph for community action!
There were issues for the Westpac helicopter landing on on occasion at Moore Crescent with too many cars and people to allow a safe landing. It was also noted that an incident at the western end of the beach could create a timing issue of Moore Crescent is the only approved location. It is interesting that the Emergency Helicopter actually has the right to land anywhere they deem appropriate (for instance they can close and land on a road with the assistance of local responders). Further work is being done to identify appropriate alternative sites.
Finally, it would be remiss not to mention the work on track clearance done by Craig Roe, his family and many of the volunteers who also monitor the pest traps. The team have done a brilliant job reinstating the track to Sandy Bay, and have also cleared a new track alongside the Stewart Stream. We will be publishing more information on this site with maps and directions as soon as these are ready.