David Holland has spoken out after a massive channel was dug in a recently planted reserve in Pāpāmoa. Photo / Alex Cairns
David Holland has spoken out after a massive channel was dug in a recently planted reserve in Pāpāmoa. Photo / Alex Cairns
City council efforts to redirect stormwater at a popular Pāpāmoa walkway have been abruptly stopped after new plantings and at-risk eels were dug up and dumped in what a concerned resident described as “total unnecessary destruction”.
Plans to create the small channel, as part of the Tauranga City Council TeAra o Wairakei project, resulted in contractors carving out a waterway about 5m wide and 270m long before the council halted the digging.
Pāpāmoa resident David Holland said he was walking along the Te Ara o Wairakei between Hartford Ave and Evans Rd on July 24 when he saw contractors digging up large sections of riparian planting.
Holland said he was shocked, especially because many of the plants had only been established in recent years to help improve ecology, water quality and biodiversity.
Te Ara o Wairakei was previously known as Pāpāmoa’s Main Drain but was renamed to honour its cultural heritage and ecological past.
In his opinion: “I see this as just vandalism. It is atrocious.”
Holland said an upset Ngā Pōtiki representative was trying to save the eels, returning them to the water.
“She was angry, telling me: ‘I’m picking up dead eels’.”
Holland contacted the council, concerned at what he was witnessing.
Holland said, from his perspective: “I was absolutely disgusted with the vandalism of those plantings, put in by the ratepayers to help beautify the area”.
He believed it was “total unnecessary destruction”.
The 'small channel' that was meant to be created in Pāpāmoa now measures 5m by 270m. Photo / Alex Cairns
A council officer arrived, stopping the project from continuing, however, the 5m by 270m channel had already been created, Holland said.
“How the Dickens are they going to rectify it and at whose expense?”
Holland was concerned ratepayers would have to pay.
He was also concerned about what could happen to the environment during summer when there would be less wet weather.
“At the upper end of the catchment, the water at the moment is about 6 inches deep. In summer, that’s going to drop. We will be left with a lump of clay or a soggy mess.”
In his view: “They’ve made such a mess, how are they going to deal with it?”
Council manager of drainage services Radleigh Cairns said that in 2019 a concrete channel drain was removed and plantings added to improve the ecological habitat of the area.
“Over the summer period just gone, this specific area had multiple events where the walkways have been flooded for periods of time,” Cairns said.
In the past 18 months record levels of rain have increased groundwater tables across the city.
Council staff received “an increasing number of concerns” from residents about the water flow through these areas becoming increasingly constrained, Cairns said.
Concerned resident David Holland. Photo / Alex Cairns
Efforts to improve the stormwater flow without affecting the plantings had “failed to a significant effect”, he said.
“A contractor was engaged to create a small channel that would temporarily enable stormwater and the increasing groundwater to flow towards Harrisons Cut while a more permanent solution was found.
“Staff are currently working with the contractor to investigate how and why so much of the plantings, especially between Hartford Ave and Evans Rd, have been removed.”
Cairns said the work stopped as soon as staff became aware of the issue.
“Now that this has happened, council will take some time to review the best way forward so that the improved habitat provided by the plantings can be reinstated in a way that allows for the reduction in ponding and improved flow of groundwater after the more frequent rain events that our city has experienced.”
The Te Ara o Wairakei Landscape Plan, which includes building shared paths, bridges, and boardwalks plus seating and signs, was due to be completed by December 2025 under the Pāpāmoa Comprehensive Stormwater Consent.
Tree planting and pest plant management were underway, with more low-level planting to enhance the regenerating wetland areas due in the 2024 planting season, Cairns said.
The total cost of the Wairakei Landscape Plan in the 2018 Long-term Plan was $5.77 million. So far, it has cost just under $4.5m, Cairns said.
In 2020, Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore Trust said it was working with the council and other iwi and hapū to make sure native species were given every opportunity to re-establish and flourish in Te Ara ō Wairakei reserve.
The Te Ara ō Wairakei project was an opportunity to preserve and enhance what was left of the natural environment and riparian planting was a way of doing this. By 2020, hundreds of thousands of native plants were planted, providing habitat for whitebait and eels, both of which have an At Risk - declining conservation status.
Ngā Pōtiki was contacted for comment.
David Holland is concerned a council contractor dug a massive channel in a recently planted reserve in Pāpāmoa. Photo / Alex Cairns
