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Whakatane District Council has been fined $7500 after it pleaded guilty to unlawfully destroying part of the Puketapu Pa scenic reserve.
But that's cold comfort for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, which says the council's misguided earthworks have erased part of the district's heritage.
"Puketapu Pa is part of a wider, nationally significant heritage landscape of 21 defensive pa perched on the escarpment overlooking the Bay of Plenty," the trust's lower northern area manager Gail Henry said.
"The earthworks carried out by the council in 2007 were in disregard of the Historic Places Act, and destroyed forever valuable archaeological information from one of the country's most treasured heritage landscapes."
The council carried out the earthworks for a fence, digging 32 post holes around the scenic reserve without first obtaining an archaeological authority from the Historic Places Trust - despite being advised of this need by their consulting archaeologist.
As a result, the country's lead heritage agency prosecuted the council under the archaeological provisions of the Historic Places Act.
In Whakatane District Court on Wednesday, the council was fined $7500 and ordered to pay $113 in solicitors' fees and $1671.30 in disbursements for an archaeologist.
In imposing the fine, which is to be paid to the Historic Places Trust, Judge Arthur Tompkins took into account the council's response in co-operating with the trust after the event, mitigating the damage and putting systems in place to ensure the same thing did not happen again.
Defence lawyer David Neutze blamed the slip-up on miscommunication within the council and the lack of appropriate systems.
He said the council was "deeply embarrassed" and "mortified" when it learned of the breach and immediately contacted the trust and a senior representative of Ngati Awa.
The rest of the works were completed under the supervision of archaeologist Ken Phillips at a cost of almost $7000.
The site was later blessed by kaumatua.
Council chief executive Diane Turner said the council decided to plead guilty after realising that there had been a failure in its internal systems.
"It was a very regrettable mistake, which we have learned from and have since taken steps to ensure that this does not happen again."
Ms Henry said the Historic Places Trust did not take the decision to prosecute lightly.
"The council was told unequivocally four years ago that it would need an archaeological authority to carry out this work, yet they went ahead regardless.
"Puketapu Pa is one of the most important pa sites in the Bay of Plenty. The council's action resulted in irreplaceable archaeological evidence and information about this important pa and the people that live there over the course of hundreds of years being lost forever."
Ms Henry said New Zealand had lost some of its earliest archaeological sites through illegal or uncontrolled earthworks over the years and once they were gone they were gone for good.
- NZPA
