Ashhurst track gone in floods

Ashhurst residents have watched in horror as hundreds of trees and huge chunks of Ashhurst Domain have been destroyed by the Manawatu River.

The week’s floodwaters have swallowed a vehicle track and eroded the river bank deep into bush already damaged in two previous floods, threatening the walking track.

The devastation began just a day after Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith described the lack of action to protect the area as ‘‘disastrous’’.

Ashhurst resident Gary Tanner described the avoidable destruction as ‘‘criminal negligence’’.

‘‘The roads people are probably getting worried now.

‘‘I feel I have made my point so many times.

‘‘This could have been stopped 18 months ago.’’

Manawatu Gorge landowner and biodiversity project group member Tom Shannon told the city council’s planning and strategy committee on Monday the situation was ‘‘embarrassing’’. ‘‘We should be smarter than this.’’ Shannon said the former beach just upstream of the bridge of the Manawatu River had been one of the few places people could get down to the river.

‘‘As a public asset of quite high value I would have thought protection of this precinct deserved more.’’

The changed course of the river was also veering close to the Ashhurst-side piers supporting the state highway bridge, and Smith was seeking an urgent meeting with the New Zealand Transport Agency to sort something out.

The problem with managing the area was that it was outside Horizons Regional Council’s lower Manawatu river management scheme, while the domain is owned by the Palmerston North City Council.

Horizons group manager for river management Ramon Strong said the city council had been told about the possible solutions and potential ramifications of doing nothing.

The regional council had also set $80,000 aside to help.

Ashhurst resident Harvey Jones said last winter, the two councils claimed it was too wet to do any remedial action, but nothing had been done over summer either.

He took photographs on Friday morning when most of the river access track had gone and the parking area was slumping into the river.

The parking area itself had been improved and planted in several projects involving community and volunteer efforts.

Most of the flaxes and other plants put in to beautify the area had gone.

Ashhurst Domain caretaker Ken Pratt said the destruction could have

‘‘As a public asset of quite high value I would have thought protection of this precinct deserved more.’’

Tom Shannon