The Far North District Council ceased maintaining the Waipapakauri Ramp access to 90 Mile Beach some time ago, having tired of seeing tens of thousands of dollars' worth of work washed out by the Tasman Sea almost as soon as it had been done, and in more recent times has struggled to maintain vehicular access to the beach at Ahipara's Kaka St.
Cr Dave Collard said last week that he was preparing a proposal for the council that would at least resolve the Kaka St issue, and could possibly be of some benefit at Waipapakauri.
"I'm told it costs the council $5000 every time it sends someone up, and that's without actually doing much," he said.
"Obviously we need some sort of supervision, but instead of spending a fortune, often after access has been lost for days or weeks at a time, I reckon we should pay someone local a small retainer to keep an eye on it, and a slightly larger retainer to someone who has the equipment to fix whatever needs fixing. We have people living right there who could do both.
"They might have to do some work three times a year, or 23 times a year, but it would be well worth a go as a year's trial.
