Auckland Council has suspended its proposal to compulsorily acquire 172 hectares of farmland near Waimauku for a new cemetery after facing opposition from local hapū and the private landowner.
Waikūmete Cemetery in Glen Eden is at full capacity and Auckland Council has been urgently working to find a new location for burials.
The council had begun pursuing the land at 1080 State Highway 16, Reweti, under the Public Works Act earlier this year.
But parks and community facilities general manager Taryn Crewe said today the council has now concluded “there is no viable path forward … that meets the needs and expectations of all parties”.
“We acknowledge that this proposal raised important concerns for mana whenua.
“Their role as kaitiaki in matters relating to tūpāpaku, whenua, and whakapapa is deeply significant. We recognise that our early engagement in this case did not meet the standard we aspire to.
“We are committed to learning from this experience and continuing to build on our relationship with mana whenua. These lessons will guide our approach to any future work of this nature,” she said in a statement.
The sizeable land block in Waimauku — a small township 30km from Auckland’s CBD — was earlier identified as the most suitable site for compulsory acquisition after the Waikūmete Cemetery in Glen Eden reached capacity.
The block would have provided around 50 years of burial capacity and was identified as the council’s preferred site after 45 potential locations were assessed earlier this year.
“The council is proactively investigating acquiring other land in Auckland’s north-west for a new cemetery,” Crewe said today.
She said “future cemetery provision for our growing region remains a priority”.
Some found out about plan through Facebook
In March, the private owner of the Waimauku land told 1News that the council wanted to take the best part of his farm where silage was made. At the time, he called the plan ill-considered and said he would take his case to the Environment Court.
Luann Tapu, trustee of Whiti Te Rā o Reweti Marae, or Reweti Marae, said the land belonged to Te Taoū before its confiscation.
Their ancestral mountain was part of the proposed land block up for acquisition.
“We are a part of the whenua, and that is our maunga that we can’t access, so it is important to our community and our marae that we’re able to access the maunga and that we’re a part of the kōrero.”
Marae chairman David Mercer said the lack of communication from the council was a source of consternation. The marae inadvertently found out through a social media post.
“We received it in a way that was almost hard to believe, like all Facebook posts, and so it says something about the disregard for our role as kaitiaki, but also as tangata whenua, and as hapū within this area.
“It’s not something that’s far removed from us, it’s literally just across the tracks here,” he said in March.
The council previously conceded it could have better consulted local iwi and hapū.
