Pauanui club wants surf lifeguards to shift house

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Every summer for more than 20 years, volunteer lifeguards have travelled from Auckland to a little Coromandel town where they stay in a modest house on a seafront property.

But Pauanui's happy arrangement has turned sour because, although the lifesaving club owns the two-bedroom Lockwood house, another club owns the land beneath it.

The Pauanui Sports and Recreation Club, which has been happy for the house to sit on its property, now says the land's value has soared to $400,000.

It wants the lifeguards' house shifted so the land can generate some cash.

The Pauanui Surf Life Saving Club says shifting the house would take lifeguards too far from the beach, costing precious seconds when swimmers are in trouble.

The lifesaving club is circulating letters urging members of the recreation club to vote for a motion that the land be sold to the lifesavers for just $80,000.

The spat has divided Pauanui, partly because many people are members of both clubs.

This includes David Brettell, the man who made the $80,000 motion at the recreation club - and who is also secretary of the lifesaving club.

Mr Brettell said yesterday that the land was originally split off a reserve so it could be used by the lifesavers, and the recreation club seemed to have forgotten that.

"I don't think we're being too pig-headed wanting to stay there. It's only 200m from our patrol tower. For someone who's drowning, seconds can mean life or death."

Mr Brettell said the lifesavers rescued four people on Friday, including two people who flipped off a jetski.

The recreation club's general manager, Valerie Johns, said her organisation had offered to shift the house free.

Managers were "at our wit's end" after lengthy discussions with the lifeguards.

The recreation club had paid $60,000 over the years on maintaining the property, and needed money from the land to pay a mortgage on a golf course.

"Wherever you are in Pauanui, you can walk or take a pushbike to the beach," she said.

"Their logic [in refusing to shift] doesn't make sense."

Mrs Johns suggested Mr Brettell had a clear conflict of interest in making the $80,000 motion at one club that would benefit another club of which he was a member.

The surf club has up to 230 members, including 40 volunteer lifeguards.

The recreation club has 2000 members and runs most of the town's sporting attractions.

The $80,000 motion will be put to the recreation club's annual meeting on January 25.