A two-year bylaw which will ban vehicles accessing a scenic stretch of South Wairarapa coastline was adopted on Wednesday by the district council.
As part of the bylaw, which would come into effect on December 1, pedestrians and cyclists would still be allowed access to the unformed legal road in the Cape Palliser area.
This differed from the initial proposal which aimed to ban all access for three years.
The unformed legal road, which gives public access to a stretch of South Wairarapa coastline, traverses both privately-owned Māori land and Crown land managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
It had historically been used by the public for access to remote coastal areas, including surf breaks and parts of Aorangi Forest Park, but the area had suffered extensive environmental damage due to the misuse of the road to access private land by four-wheel drives, quad bikes, and illegal campers.
Despite having the support of a majority of councillors, the amended bylaw was still opposed by councillors Aidan Ellims and Aaron Woodcock at Wednesday’s full council meeting.
They wanted a shorter time frame for the bylaw and access allowed for quad bikes and side-by-sides.
Ellims said 72% of 3500 submissions made during consultation “supported vehicle restrictions, not vehicle banning”.
“I feel that there is still a compromise that could be made to allow people who are responsible members of our community still to have access.
“I think the bylaw, as it is written at the moment, is closing off access to a large number of our community whereas the original goal of the bylaw was to protect Ngāti Hinewaka’s land from damage and destruction from people using it.”
He said the total vehicle ban on the paper road was unfair to responsible users which included young families, families with older relatives who were visiting the coast, hunters, surfers, and fishers who used side-by-sides and quad bikes to access reserve areas.
Surveying of the unformed legal road was already underway and a stakeholder access group would be “invited to consider options for future access and use” of the paper road.
Deputy Mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter said she would have preferred to vote on the bylaw with a confirmed survey of the road as this would have made future steps clearer.
The surveying would determine whether the unformed legal road was still continuous or whether it now fell into the sea.
Councillor Colin Olds said he was pleased the bylaw would go toward resolving an issue that had been “outstanding now for generations” and that the council would work with the community and interested groups to move to a long-term solution.
The bylaw would be revoked on November 30, 2027.
Councillor Alistair Plimmer abstained from the vote.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
