Waiinu and Waitotara residents mixed on new beach road

A proposed new road to Waiinu Beach will provide guaranteed access for residents and campers. Photo/ file

Having an extra route to Waiinu Beach will be an advantage, Waitotara village resident Trevor Payn says.

South Taranaki District Council is organising a new route that will extend Nukumaru Station Rd and avoid crossing the Waitotara River. The existing road to the beach, Waiinu Beach Rd, crossed the Waitotara River on the Limeworks Bridge, which is fragile after a series of floods.

The council has said Waiinu Beach Rd will stay open, as long as the bridge is safe. It will only be used by light vehicles, with trucks taking the Nukumaru route.

"It's going to divert all the heavy traffic down the new road instead of coming past here and waking me up in the morning," Mr Payn said.

He and about four others in the village work at Silver Fern Farms' Waitotara meatworks in Waiinu Beach Rd. They will be able to get there by car, as long as the bridge lasts.

If it fails they will have to take the Nukumaru route.

"It's only an extra 10 minutes, which is nothing really," he said.

Mr Payn has a section at Waiinu Beach, and is pleased the new road will guarantee long-term access to it. He said as long as the bridge lasted it would also provide alternative access when the SH3 bridge over the Waitotara River was closed by floods or accidents.

The proposed extension linking Nukumaru and Waiinu Beach. Graphic/Bevan Conley

And he wants to support Nukumaru farmer David Pearce, who has allowed access across his private land many times when the Limeworks Bridge is not safe.

But others in the village have worried that without the usual level of through traffic, it will die. An owner of Waitotara Hotel & Shop did not want to comment.

Down at the beach, long-time resident Mick Zimmerman said there were mixed views. He plays golf in Waverley and his wife goes to church there. Some beach residents work there.

Getting to Waverley will take longer if the Limeworks Bridge fails and they have to travel through Nukumaru.

On the other hand, he is glad the new road will guarantee continued access to the beach even if the Limeworks Bridge is damaged.

"We want something. Everyone is getting worried about another flood," he said.