KEY POINTS:
Auckland's environmental agency is calling for urgent action to halt dangerous and destructive use of Muriwai Beach.
But Auckland Regional Council members yesterday stopped short of calling for a total ban on vehicles using the 60km stretch of beach to the city's northwest.
Instead, they decided to lead development of "improved and consistent management of vehicles" at Muriwai and nationally.
This includes approaches to beef up education on beach use, visits from Government ministers and a public meeting next month.
Members feared that closing access to Muriwai would shift the problem to remote areas elsewhere in the region or in the Waikato or Northland.
ARC visitor services manager Jane Aickin said that due to the range of users of the beach and the lack of controls, there was a real risk of a repeat of the New Year's Eve tragedy where 13-year-old Daisy Fernandez was struck and killed by a teenage motorcyclist as she and a friend sat on the beach at Glinks Gully, near Dargaville.
"No one knows how we can cope with that demand," she said.
Deputy ARC chairman Christine Rose said Muriwai was one of the country's busiest attractions with 750,000 visitors a year.
"There's a dangerous mix of activities there which are not properly regulated under the present system. Vehicles are an anathema to coastal values."
She said vehicles not only caused harm to beach users but also to rare birds, shellfish and sand dunes.
"It's anarchy out there," said Mrs Rose, who noted the Westpac rescue helicopter attended five motorbike injury accidents last year and an accident in 2006 where a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle.
Last month a man was injured when a quad bike and a trail bike collided.
Mrs Rose said police were limited in their ability to cover the whole beach.
Kumeu Community Constable Anna Crane said there was a perception that everyone had a right to do what they liked on Muriwai Beach.
There was an influx of people wanting to do different things within the area.
"It's the Wild West," she said.
Many accidents were not reported to authorities.
Constable Crane said the beach was designated a road under the Land Transport Act and was defined as open road with a maximum speed of 100km/h.
However, experts said the maximum speed in a four-wheel-drive was 40 to 60 km/h, with a high chance of rollovers when vehicles hit the soft sand.
All agencies would meet with police next month to discuss the speed limit.
Rodney District Council is responsible for controlling the beach between the low and mean high tide marks.
Rodney Mayor Penny Webster agreed with the ARC there should be a joint approach by all agencies for a national plan of action.
"It's not just a Muriwai thing. It's wider than that," she said.
Her council was looking at forming a working party to re-evaluate its recently approved beach bylaws, with an emphasis on public safety.
"You don't want to start stopping people going on any beach but we should look for a better way of allowing access on some of our beaches.
"But the bottom line comes back to people having respect for other's right to go on the beach and the different uses ... how you regulate for that I don't know."
