ARC calls for more access to Auckland's coastline

The Auckland Regional Council is calling for more walking access around its coastline - even if it means the Government buying back waterfront land in private ownership.

In its proposed submission on the Government's Outdoor Walking Access document, the council is asking for the restoration of waterfront reserves lost over the years and for secure paths over private land to provide access to publicly owned areas.

In the Auckland region, significant areas of coastal land have been lost primarily to erosion or housing development. The regional council wants these new access-ways established, preferably by agreement after negotiation - even if this means that the Government has to compensate landowners.

The regional council has suggested that all costs fall on a central government agency which would promote a "national public access goal".

Despite Auckland being surrounded by water, council spokesman Paul Walbran said, the council was concerned that the region had a growing population which needed better access to the coast.

While Mr Walbran accepts that walks along some densely populated inner-city coastal areas like Takapuna or Herne Bay have likely been lost forever, he warned farmers that the bulk of Auckland's coastline still lies beside rural land.

"It may be appropriate to regain some of these areas for access, and compensation would be required."

He said the public was often unaware that access-ways had become "privatised" by adjacent landowners because city councils had neither had the resources nor the inclination to maintain such areas.

The council was aware that this had been compounded in urban areas by some councils allowing developers to set aside a privately owned waterfront strip, rather than a publicly owned waterfront reserve, with the latter often requiring compensation.

"It's often a point of friction, whether rural or urban, between those living beside the amenity of a reserve or coast who don't like others using it," said Mr Walbran.

"But it comes down to a matter of ownership; if people are squatting on publicly owned land - whether that be grazing by farmers or someone whose building is intruding on a park or reserve - it is often done so knowingly, even if it goes back generations. I would say they have had a free ride up till now."

The council's stance has won the backing of groups like Walking on Waiheke and the South Head Strollers Society, who are demanding that more be done to ensure better coastal access for future generations.

Walkways on Waiheke co-founder Peter Green said he had been battling for a decade to get the Auckland City Council to take a tougher line with developers and landowners who encroached on public reserve walking areas.

"I have been here 30 years and seen a gradual loss of walking access to the coast over that time. We get many people coming from the city to walk, but you almost need a seeing-eye dog to make sense of the map, it juts inland so often."

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand president Howard Morley said the council's plan sounded suspiciously like compulsory land acquisition.

He believed the plan could potentially affect thousands of landowners who owned coastal property where there was no public access.