Meeting on Bay of Plenty's Matakana Island to reopen Panepane Wharf

A crude barbed wire fence slung between driftwood poles has prevented the use of Panepane Wharf since last Thursday. Photo/supplied

A key meeting takes place on Matakana Island today to try and resolve issues that led to barricades going up on Panepane Wharf.

The wharf opposite Tauranga has become the focus of a protest led by island kaumatua Bob Rolleston who yesterday explained why they were blockading the council-owned wharf.

He said the real issue was the number of people going onto the island, and the biggest issue for him was Kewpie Harbour Cruises.

People taking the harbour cruise had the option of being dropped off at the wharf to enjoy the beach and then getting picked up on the boat's return an hour later.

Rolleston said first and foremost he wanted the Kewpie cruise stopped.

Four to five trips a day by Kewpie added up to a large number of people being dropped off in a relatively small area, he said.

''Too many people are going willy-nilly on and off the place.''

Rolleston said he was a kaumatua for three of the island's five hapu (sub tribes) and spoke on behalf of Matakana and Rangiwaea islands at many forums.

Although the Panepane end of Matakana Island was owned by the Western Bay District Council - ''and I take issue with that personally'' - he said the history and stories of the area were huge. It was a purakau (ancestral) area.

''For people to be coming there and not knowing what they (the stories) are is not the done thing as far as I am concerned.''

Rolleston said people needed to understand it was more than the issue of people on the beach doing their thing - including urinating in the bush, lighting fires and leaving rubbish behind.

''It is just a shame that it had to come to this.''

The complaints were not levelled specifically at Kewpie passengers but extended to some of the occupants of other craft that tied up at the wharf to enjoy the area.

Rolleston said he did not erect the barricades. ''I am not a lone voice.''

He said they were meeting the council at 3pm today and he had given an undertaking to allow the removal of the latest barricade - a wire fence.

''The council has given their word that the Kewpie will not drop off [passengers] at this stage.''

He wanted the Kewpi to permanently stop discharging passengers onto the wharf.

Kewpie Harbour Cruises owner Brandon Stone declined to comment on the condition that the barricades would go up again if he intended to resume calling at the wharf.

Western Bay Mayor Garry Webber said Rolleston had called the meeting, that would take place this afternoon.

''We are pretty much in Bob's hands to see what he has to say.''

Webber said diplomacy was a far better way to resolve the issue.

On the question of Kewpie Harbour Cruises, he said it was a fact many people used the jetty. If the council started to be selective about a public facility, the question had to be asked whether it was still a public facility.

Beyond that, he could not comment. ''We have to sit across the table and see where he is coming from, hear what he has to say and then assess where we go. It is a fluid situation.''