The disagreement between the two councils is intolerable while the beach suffers accelerating man-made erosion. After 25 years of beach damage and constant delays with the consent application the mayor, Barbara Arnott, is holding to her position that I am responsible for any detrimental effects to private property and personal harm to residents.
The time required to process the consent, the design stages and the construction phase will extend beyond this council and maybe this decade.
It is a major concern when this year the surf club has been flooded by three separate moderate swells.
This year, in order to address the failure of beach nourishment, the quantity of imported material has been increased to allow the unstable shingle seawall to be raised and widened.
We now need a miracle to save Westshore Beach. The increasing damage to the beach will limit options for the ultimate hard engineering solution.
In the meantime, nourishment is better than nothing. However, the amount should be substantially increased.
In May 2009, Mrs Arnott announced that an offshore breakwater would be built to remove 12 Whakarire Ave properties from the coastal erosion zone and that the backshore between James St and the surf club would be re-profiled. At the same meeting, Mrs Arnott announced that the beach nourishment programme was a huge success and would be continued as the long-term solution.
In fact, these properties are elevated and because of the direction of dominant swells can be well protected with simple shoreline maintenance. The proposed breakwater will destroy the reef and all its natural attributes and the redirection of wave energy will increase erosion to the north.
The 73,000cu m backshore re-profiling will require Marine Parade pea gravel to act as a backstop for the constantly retreating shingle seawall. The reports state this expensive project will increase the performance of nourishment however the Napier City Council has promoted it as work to improve sea views from the backshore reserve.
Unfortunately, severe inshore erosion with a retreating beach will continue to cause irreparable damage to the beachhead, with or without these planned projects.
There are maps depicting the build-up of the spit since 1850 and photos showing the build-up of the beach since 1890.
There is a myriad of photographic evidence on the build-up of sand before and after the 1931 earthquake.
The more elderly citizens have countless recollections of a vast beach from the carpark to the water's edge. They recount a sandy beach, before and after the quake, which was in a state of accretion until the late 1970s when the beach became starved of replenishment.
The beach entered an irreversible state of erosion following major development at the Port of Napier.
From the 1980s erosion increased as a direct result of the further deepening of the navigation channel to cater for larger cargo vessels and, more recently, cruise ships.
LARRY DALLIMORE , Westshore
Low vote deplored
I was appalled to read in Hawke's Bay Today of the low turnout on our election day
In stark contrast, there were news reports of Egyptians who queued for hours to record a vote. Perhaps it is time for this country to explore the possibility of online voting, as the younger generation of voter is computer savvy.
By making it compulsory to record a vote, even an abstention is recorded as a vote, otherwise there should be a heavy fine, say $2000 for starters.
If there were an online alternative there would be no excuse not to vote at either local or national elections. Maybe the Lotto outlets could be utilised for the elections for those who do not have a computer.
The right to vote has been obtained at a heavy price, paid for over many generations by our forebears. Democracy may not be the most perfect form of governance but there are people still paying the ultimate price for the right to vote.
Perhaps an overhaul as to how we vote in modern Aotearoa New Zealand is overdue.
TREVOR DOUGLAS WAKELY , Napier
Cyclists hard to spot
Yesterday morning I drove along the Hawke's Bay Expressway.
Everything was very grey and it was drizzling.
A high percentage of the cars had their headlights on.
I could not believe the numbers of cyclists pedalling along there who were all wearing black or grey, riding dark-coloured bikes.
All very hard to spot until you get close to them.
Hey, if you have friends or family members who ride bikes on busy roads, why not get them high-vis bike stuff for Christmas? A vest or a backpack or some sort of striped harness, or a dab of fluorescent paint on their mudguards. Or, gosh, even a light for their bike might be a good idea.
It would make it a lot safer for everyone.
VAL MUIR Napier
