Campaigners want Westhaven Marina land for harbour park

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Plans to sell Westhaven Marina are drawing fire from campaigners for a park beside the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Park campaigner Richard Harris said it was hoped that land to the west of the marina and bridge approaches would form a harbour park to link to the existing Pt Erin and Victoria Parks.

But Ports of Auckland owned some of the land and had included it in sale plans for the marina.

Ports company land was at present open space around an area owned by Transit New Zealand, which used it as storage for bridge maintenance.

The area was a poor gateway for Auckland, said Mr Harris, who is an architect and Herne Bay resident.

"No city with a bridge they are proud of would dream of putting a maintenance depot under the bridge, with barbed wire, old signs, dinghies and bollards.

"They should celebrate the arrival of the bridge with the land, and it should be an international-quality landscaped environment."

Mr Harris said he was concerned that the land's owners would try to make money out of it through apartment projects.

The Auckland City Council should get the chance to buy the land from the ports company for a token $1 and then focus on getting Transit's piece, he said.

The Western Bays Community Board supports Mr Harris' campaign and at last week's city council meeting, councillors Penny Sefuiva and Bruce Hucker sought council support for a harbour park.

Their bid to get the council to start discussions with the ports company about the land was taken in the confidential section of the meeting.

But a staff report before a meeting yesterday of the council's recreation and events committee recommends that the council does not buy the land west of the bridge approaches.

Committee chairman Scott Milne said he was interested in looking at how the council might come to an arrangement with the ports company about the land.

Money was not put aside in this year's budget for buying it and it would have to be a budget item.

Mr Milne said he believed that if the company was not using the land for port purposes then it should be given back to the city.

A ports company spokeswoman said that it was "too early to meaningfully discuss" the western piece of land.

Arrangements for the sale by tender of the land and marina will take several months to complete.