Te Puna Station Road with a road closed sign in place. Photo / Alex Cairns
Te Puna Station Road with a road closed sign in place. Photo / Alex Cairns
Police plan to regularly patrol a storm-hit closed Western Bay of Plenty road amid concerns of barriers being breached for burnouts and “quite serious” anti-social behaviour such as suspected drug dealing and fly-tipping.
The future of Te Puna Station Rd was discussed at a Western Bay of Plenty District Council Projects and Monitoring Committee meeting on Tuesday
The road was closed to traffic during Auckland Anniversary weekend in January because of large slips from severe weather. The damage was so significant in some places, chunks of the Ōmokoroa to Tauranga cycleway were lost to the sea.
It will likely be a year before the road is opened again, if at all.
In the meeting, councillor Margaret Murray-Benge asked whether council staff were considering “the anti-social behaviour going on down there”.
“I think it’s quite serious. There’s a lot of drug dealing, there’s homelessness. It just seems to be not a nice place to be.”
The Western Bay of Plenty District Council is working to stop people doing burnouts on Te Puna Station Rd, which is closed.
Deputy chief executive and general manager of infrastructure group Gary Allis responded: “These will be factors we will take into account as part of that assessment.”
After the meeting, Allis told the Bay of Plenty Times that while there was talk of the anti-social behaviour the council was yet to receive “any official reports”.
The council was aware of people moving barriers to allow access for vehicle “burnouts”.
Allis said it would be a minimum of 12 months before a decision was made on the road’s future and whether it would reopen as two lanes, one lane, or at all.
For now, the council was working to “create a safer space” while the road was closed.
Some of the over-slip material was being moved against the bottom of the bank. Once this was done, the cycleway component of Te Puna Station Rd would be reopened – reconnecting the Ōmokoroa to Tauranga Cycleway.
In addition to this, concrete barriers would be placed across the road to stop vehicle access.
“This stops the shifting of the plastic water-filled barriers which has been occurring and people using the area for burnouts.”
A New Zealand Police spokeswoman said it had not received reports of drug-related incidents or homelessness.
If anyone had concerns they were encouraged to make a report to police so it could be followed up.
“Our staff plan to proactively patrol the Te Puna Station Rd area and assess any issues that they become aware of,” the spokeswoman said.
Murray-Benge told the Bay of Plenty Times she had spoken with residents in the area who were “seriously concerned” with some having “an absolute nightmare”.
Some locals were finding people, presumably homeless, sleeping in their sheds, she said.
“There’s a lot of, we think, drug dealing going on down there. But it’s not [meant to be] a stopping area where people can congregate and carry on with anti-social behaviour,” she said.
“It’s an issue that has got the whole community really uptight.”
Councillor Tracey Coxhead, who lives nearby, said there have been comments made about anti-social behaviour but she had not heard of this personally.
“The end of Te Puna Station Rd, where it’s closed off, there is a lot of rubbish dumped there, furniture items, etc. I can’t comment so much on the anti-social behaviour but it’s got the potential for it.”
To date, the council had spent less than $500 on collecting rubbish left at the site.
