Battle over reserve lease won, but not the war

The section of Perehipe Reserve that was put up for lease.

Whatuwhiwhi resident and businessman John McMahon was pleased to hear last week that Whatuwhiwhi Top 10 Holiday Park had withdrawn its bid to lease part of the Perehipe reserve, which Far North District Council offered - but he wants much more than that.

"It was probably inevitable (that the application would be withdrawn). It was never going to go away," he said, "but this is just the first step. The issue is still the council and its absolutely bloody-minded unwillingness to listen."

Submissions had been overwhelmingly opposed to the lease, and that still needed to be addressed, he said, ideally by an independent assessment of a process taken that had failed to meet the community's rightful expectation or acceptable standard of accountability.

"It seems to have been pre-determined from beginning to end," Mr McMahon said. "I believe we were only consulted so the council could say it had done that. It had had already decided what the outcome would be."

He rejected the suggestion that community opposition was based on racism. The holiday park is owned by a Chinese company.

"They (the owners) were caught in the crossfire really. They've become victims, and anyone who says what we have done is racist is simply trying to justify what was illegal and illegitimate."

The grounds for community opposition dated well back before the current ownership, but it was only in the last three years that the community had discovered that the park had never had a formal lease on the reserve.