(No) Stairway to Heaven

Great to see the Taranaki Daily News pick up the story about the missing lower steps on Back Beach.

Like many people, it’s my favourite part of town and was once voted one of New Zealand’s favourite beaches.

When I first noticed the steps missing, I just changed my route to run down the sand dune, go along the beach and walk across the top of the reserve.

I just thought the steps would eventually be replaced, so it’s very disappointing to hear NPDC’s decision.

While pretty logical – is it prudent to spend $150k (and possibly more) on some steps when other access is available and they could be destroyed by a significant weather event? – I think NPDC might have misread the public sentiment on this one.

With $150m operating expenditure and $2.5bn of assets, a few steps to our most iconic part of town appears somewhat minor.

It also seems a fairly common engineering challenge, and one which would have a variety of options to manage risks from future weather events.

As the weather has got better, I’ve also seen more and more people cutting a path through the sand dune vegetation where the steps used to be.

You can already see the impact on the vegetation, and at the very least there needs to be some visible signage saying what’s happening with the steps and the damage to the environment by walking on the plants stabilising the dune. Charlotte Littlewood, New Plymouth