Panel rejects iwi's claim rest-home site was sacred

By PHILIP ENGLISH

A Clevedon couple have won a protracted battle to build a retirement home after planners rejected local iwi claims that the proposed building was on a sacred pa site.

Manukau City Council planning commissioners approved the application of Dennis and Dawn Wilson to modify land at 209 Broomfields Rd to build a home, tennis court and swimming pool.

In its decision released this week, the commissioners said Ngai Tai Ki Umupuia Te Waka Totara Trust provided "no conclusive evidence ... to support the assertion that the site was waahi tapu [sacred]".

The trust claimed it was the location of a significant pa, known as Te Moananui, where ancestors fought and died.

The Wilsons' son, Greg Wilson, a co-owner, told the commissioners during submissions that the land was bought in March 2001, when nothing was on the title, in the district plan or in the Land Information Memorandum report to indicate the site was of cultural significance.

The commissioners' decision was critical of the lack of supporting evidence from the trust to support its claims.

"It is regrettable that, despite the extended consultation on this issue, Ngai Tai Umupuia Te Waka Totara Trust did not fulfil their stated intention to provide a Cultural Heritage Assessment for the site, nor did it appeal the Historic Places Trust's final decision to destroy the site ...

"If these actions had been carried out, the issue of waahi tapu may well have been resolved earlier."

Trust spokesman James Brown said he was disappointed by the decision and that commission members had not accepted submissions made by iwi members.