Plan steps up protection of harbour

Residents and businesses around the Mahurangi harbour, near Warkworth, are working on a plan to protect their harbour after the Super City council starts managing it late this year.

Alarm bells were sounded several years ago when tests revealed rising sediment was smothering shellfish and making boating more dangerous.

Efforts to reduce run-off into the harbour, which increased after a period of intense land clearance, began in 2004.

Now a draft five-year plan aims to step up conservation efforts.

The plan was unveiled by the Auckland Regional Council and the Rodney District Council at an event in Warkworth.

Regional councillor Christine Rose said the plan would not have legal force, but she hoped it would alert Super City councillors to locals' strong interest in protecting the harbour at the mouth of the Mahurangi River.

She wants the plan, which includes policies to encourage planting and fencing around the harbour, remove derelict shellfish farms and improve public access to the shore, to be incorporated into the new council's planning rules.

Ms Rose said residents, farmers, fish farmers and foresters were all involved with the drafting.

Although the Mahurangi was often overshadowed by its "big sisters", the Manukau and Waitemata harbours, it was one the most beautiful harbours in the country, she said.

The Mahurangi is unusual in Auckland because testing and environmental management began before it was seriously degraded.

Ms Rose said there was an opportunity to keep it free of some of the industrial contaminants that affected harbours further south.

But it has been under pressure from land clearance because of steep slopes and high rainfall on surrounding land.

The regional council owns the headlands on either side of the harbour, and nearby parkland is popular for camping and boating.

Submissions on the draft management plan can be made until June 18.