Council accused of sabotage

A Southland couple is accusing the Southland District Council of sabotaging a coastal road closed because of erosion.

Colac Bay residents Alan and Deen McKay set up a sign at the intersection of the Colac Foreshore and Colac Bay roads that said ‘‘Foreshore Rd deliberately sabotaged by Southland District Council’’.

In December 2015, a 500-metre section of the Colac Foreshore Rd was closed after one lane of the sealed road was lost to erosion.

Deen said the council neglected the road to the point that works to repair the erosion damage were too costly, and then decided to close the road entirely.

However, Southland District mayor Gary Tong said the road closure was not the fault of the council or ratepayers, but a result of nature.

The couple set up the sign during the holiday period, when the council was closed and was unlikely to remove it, and took it down at the end of the holiday period.

They were frustrated with the council and wanted to raise public awareness about the situation, they said.

The sign would be put out again on weekends, they said.

The couple had received quite a bit of feedback about the sign, mostly support from other community members.

Tong said the decision to close the road was based on information from professionals, including scientists from NIWA.

The council had endeavoured to protect the foreshore, but to protect the road from now into the future was not going to be a happening thing, he said.

Colac Bay residents were passionate about their foreshore, but so were many other coastal communities throughout New Zealand, which were facing the same problems.

In 2017, the council engaged consultancy firm MWH to produce a feasibility report outlining options to deal with the foreshore road.

The report suggested four possible options that ranged from doing nothing, to rebuilding the road with protection, with costs ranging from $4000 to more than $800,000.

When asked what they thought of the council spending more than $800,000 of ratepayers money to repair the road, the McKays said the council should foot the bill and not ratepayers.

Deen said the Colac Bay Erosion Committee were considering taking the case to the Ombudsman because of the neglect they believe the council had shown.

If the council had done work to maintain the road, they would not have ended up in a situation where they would be spending a lot of money, Deen said.

The council has put in a resource consent with Environment Southland that will give it the ability to maintain and enhance the existing rock works on Colac Foreshore Rd, following a decision made last year not to reopen it.

Maintenance still needed to be done on the rock wall to stop further damage to the road, therefore the council had applied for consent that would cover not just the 500-metre section of the road affected, but allow for other sections to be improved in the future.

The consent applied for reinstates the previous protection and will involve replacing the rock protection to the extent that existed in 2015, with an improved design to reduce the risk of erosion extending westwards.

The application has been assessed by Environment Southland and requires written approvals from the appropriate parties, such as the Te Ru¯ nanga o¯ Nga¯ i Tahu, Te Ao Ma¯rama and the Department of Conservation.