Artist's design of the 2.5m wide, 380 metre long, boardwalk through a mangrove swamp in Shepherds Park, Beach Haven, Auckland.
Artist's design of the 2.5m wide, 380 metre long, boardwalk through a mangrove swamp in Shepherds Park, Beach Haven, Auckland.
A proposal for a $1.8 million boardwalk spanning just 380m through an ecologically sensitive mangrove swamp on Auckland's North Shore has drawn the ire of many locals, and conflicts with council recommendations.
On September 18, the Kaipātiki Local Board approved a proposed lakeside boardwalk connecting Shepherds Park to Tui Parkin Beach Haven - just weeks out from the local body elections. The proposal will go out for public consultation.
This decision to push through two options for a 380m long, 2.5m wide raised boardwalk through the Hellyers Creek mangroves went against Auckland Council parks officers' recommended option to use the $1.5 million budget to upgrade the wider 2-3km tracks winding through Shepherds Park.
The two Shepherds Park boardwalk options - one exceeding the $1.5m local board budget - plus the overall track upgrade option were pushed through for public consultation by the local board, five votes to three.
Kaipātiki Local Board member Ann Hartley voted against progressing the boardwalk to the next stage.
"The boardwalk's ridiculous. They've been looking at it for three years too," Hartley said of fellow five local board members all belonging to the Shore Action party, who voted for it.
Shore Action campaigned on providingthe boardwalk during the 2016 local body elections.
"It just doesn't make any sense at all, and particularly where it joins the park, it's crumbling away. And these days people are very cautious of building structures like this because of the eroding," Hartley said.
"People get quite surprised because they expect it to be just a flat boardwalk and when they see designs, it's a very big structure."
The existing boardwalk along the waters edge of Shepherds Park.
However, Kaipātiki Local Board chairman John Gillon said extra funds to top up a $1.8m boardwalk could be redirected from other local board budgets next year.
Gillon also said the option to use the $1.5 million to upgrade the dilapidated walking tracks through Shepherds Park could be done independently via a local board renewals budget - and did not need to be at the expense of building the boardwalk.
"If [the public chooses] one of these options that is outside the budget then we can look at ways to top it up if we need to," Gillon said.
"It's not that the [council] officers aren't endorsing what we're trying to do here it's just internal policy where they can't, in their report, recommend something we haven't already put the budget in for.
"Irrespective of which option is chosen we can still upgrade all the existing [Shepherds Park] tracks."
The eroded tracks through Shepherds Park are dangerous in the wet, locals say.
Accordingly, Gillon and his Shore Action local board members removed the recommended option to upgrade the 2-3km tracks through Shepherds Park from public consultation.
That option was amended at the local board meeting to construct new bridge connections from various creeks into Shepherds Park.
"The [original council] report didn't make it clear the upgrade of the existing track can happen irrespective of what option is selected through public consultation," Gillon said.
"I will be supporting putting renewals budget to upgrade the Shepherds Park tracks if I make the next local board."
Artist's design of the 2.5m wide, 380 metre long, boardwalk through a mangrove swamp in Shepherds Park, Beach Haven, Auckland.
However, despite Gillon's assurance money for a more expensive boardwalk could be sourced if the public wanted it, Auckland Councillor for the North Shore Chris Darby cautioned that coastal construction had a high risk of ballooning in cost.
"You can't go and placate a community by consulting on everything when you know you're asking for feedback on options that are undeliverable. That is misleading the public, your communities, and it's dishonest," Darby said.
"When you undertake a programme like this [boardwalk] you're only getting a crude order of costs.
"When you go into detail design, that's when you start to identify construction methodology, the type of materials involved.
"In the coastal marine area things escalate very quickly because there are enormous challenges. You can't just use domestic grade construction materials. There's always a high-risk."
Damaged paths in Tui Park.
David Taylor was one of many locals who spoke against the boardwalk option at the September 18 local board meeting, and was passionately against removing the Shepherds Park track upgrade options from public consultation.
"I'm appalled that the option recommended by staff based on consultation has been removed - it's hard from an outsider's perspective not to see this as a highly dubious practice - what would be a good reason for removing it?" Taylor said.
Steph Hay lives on a street leading into Tui Park, and says the tracks there are unsafe and in desperate need of upgrade.
Steph Hay lives off Tui Park and says the proposed boardwalk will connect to this raised edge of of the park. She believes construction there is unrealistic and will balloon in cost.
"I live in the area which will be affected by this project and believe that some of the board just wish to be able to say they fulfilled an election promise to link parks," Hay said.
"Unfortunately the rest of the park is in need of urgent maintenance as it is dangerous and slippery during the winter."
However, Gillon said the Shepherds Park boardwalk will be part of a "non-kauri" recreational walking route much needed to replace old nature tracks now closed to fight kauri dieback disease.
Public consultation on the Shepherds Park boardwalk will begin after local body elections, which close October 12.
