Glenda Fryer: Lessons for future in volcano mismanagement

A 'state-of-the-art' management plan was drawn up for Maungawhau-Mt Eden 24 years ago but the key sections were never implemented by the city council. Photo / Martin Sykes

The Transition Authority has been set the task of aligning the policies and practices of Auckland's seven territorial authorities and the Regional Council, so that on November 1 the new Auckland Council is an entity that is "working for you".

When the staff of that authority search through Auckland City Council's policies and plans, they will find a glory box full of superb policies, from volcanic cone management and open space to a policy for older and younger Aucklanders.

They may wonder why the documents are in such pristine condition rather than well thumbed through. There is a good reason for that.

Auckland City has "policies for Africa", as the saying goes - but they are rarely implemented. Shelved and largely ignored.

When any major project needs to be done, the council goes back to the drawing board rather than implement the policies it has already worked on, and starts the process all over again. Economic objectives are put ahead of cultural, social and environmental objectives when dealing with day-to-day issues.

A case in point is the iconic Maungawhau-Mt Eden. A "state-of-the-art" management plan was drawn up by the Mt Eden Borough Council in 1986 with the assistance of Dr Sue Bulmer, senior lecturer of the archaeology department of Auckland University.

Auckland City Council never implemented the key sections of that plan - the removal of buses and cows and the employment of a "park ranger" to oversee the management of the historic maunga.

When in 2001 the Eden Albert Community Board asked the council to implement the management plan for Maungawhau, specifically in regard to the buses, cows and the park ranger, its response was to say the plan was too old and that it needed to start afresh on a new one. That process took six years - it was not completed until 2007.

The only part of the original plan that has ever been implemented was the removal of cows last year - but only after fierce campaigning by the community board, Ngati Whatua and Friends of Maungawhau.

With the maintenance of maunga starved of funding through cuts made during this council term, hundreds of volunteers have stepped into the breach to assist with the job the council is not doing on Maungawhau by looking after weeding, basic maintenance and signage, creating biodiversity through propagation of eco-sourced plants, and alerting officers to unlawful actions by contractors and the public. They have become the "flax-root" rangers.

One of the keys to the heritage management of all Auckland's cones is the establishment of a "park ranger" system which can oversee everything from the day-to-day management of weed control, road, track and vegetation maintenance, vandalism, encroachment, fencing improvements, to "event" occasions like filming or music in the park, and grazing where appropriate.

During this term of the council, the economic imperative of getting the cheapest job done through contracting out and then subcontracting out the management of the volcanic cones with clearly inadequate oversight has been put ahead of the heritage values of the maunga.

The destruction of heritage on five of our maunga was recently reported by the Herald - only the most recent evidence of the results of this policy.

The Transition Authority's challenge is to install a system that manages holistically all of Auckland's cones, using a "park ranger" system with cadets and "flax-root" rangers.

The alternative is that the separate council-controlled organisations (CCOs) each manage separate aspects of the parks. With the Transport Authority overseeing the cones' roads, the property CCO overseeing the whole property portfolio, including any council-owned buildings on the cones, the economic CCO in charge of events and tourism and the Auckland Council in charge of park management, it will be inevitable that piecemeal and insensitive management will result.

The whole ownership issue of the maunga, recently the subject of a Treaty settlement process, makes its management much more complex.

The iwi of Auckland will own the maunga, and a committee akin to the Ngati Whatua o Orakei Reserves Board - which oversees the Bastion Pt land given back by the Crown under the Orakei Act 1991 - will have governance responsibilities for its management.

The lesson the Transition Authority needs to take note of is that Auckland City Council's great policies are not aligned with its operational arm and that such a fatal flaw must not be replicated in the Auckland Council. Auckland's maunga are a cultural and environmental taonga for every Aucklander and all of our visitors. They need sensitive, holistic management from a single, dedicated agency.

* Glenda Fryer is an Auckland City councillor and was chairwoman of the Maungawhau Advisory Group from 2000 to 2004.