Beach ban ‘discrimination’

has not been set for consultation.

Council environmental scientist Peter Hamill said vehicle traffic and the amount of pressure on the environment had steadily increased since the earthquake.

But petition organiser and fisherman Mark Wills said the council had ‘‘not done their research’’ and omitted information from their technical report.

The report, which took 18 months to complete, pulled together scientific data on the east coast from several sources, including the Department of Conservation.

For two years, Wills chaired the East Coast Protection Group, which championed the coast’s preservation. But he left last year as he felt it was ‘‘clear’’ the group wanted a vehicle ban, which he disagreed with. He believed access to beaches was a New Zealander’s right, that storms did more damage than people, and that beach walkers did more damage than quad bikers, as vehicles had less downward pressure.

‘‘The average weight of a human is 88kg. That all goes to one foot when someone is walking. A quad has about a third the amount of pressure.’’

Most quad bikers drove in the ‘‘dead zone’’, an area between the neap tide and spring high tide, where nothing living existed, Wills said. The dead zone could be from two metres to 30m wide.

‘‘These areas above the neap tides, they don’t get water for up to 10 days, so aquatic life cannot survive there,’’ he said.

‘‘But no birds or lizards will live in the area because it’s flooded with water every few days.’’

Hamill, who helped compile the report, said there was ‘‘no such thing’’ as a dead zone.

‘‘There’s always something in a habitat, even things like sand hoppers eating seaweed and sea birds eating those.’’

Hamill did not know whether a quad exerted less pressure than