“Legally all beaches are roads, but the rules aren’t always being followed,” Vickoce said.
Castlecliff Coast Care member Ruth Tidemann said the habits of generations of people who believed it was their right to drive on Whanganui beaches whenever and wherever they wanted needed to change.
Started in 2007, Castlecliff Coast Care is a community group focused on planting natives in the coast’s dunes.
Tidemann said the group had planted thousands of plants to secure the sand.
“But all it takes is one big fat wheel on a plant, and that’s it.”
In 2019 Tidemann and Vickoce started a petition for the council to observe its own bylaws, such as banning vehicles on the dunes and driving illegally on the beach.
Tidemann said the issues in 2019 were still issues now and vehicles were damaging efforts to protect the dunes.
A 2022 survey that sought suggestions from the public on the council’s Coastal Action Plan received more than 500 responses.
When asked what issues they encountered when using the Castlecliff Beach area, 35 per cent of those surveyed chose “vehicles”.
It was the highest-polling issue, with runner-ups being rubbish (25 per cent) and dogs (13 per cent).
When asked for suggestions on how to “create something better than what we already have”, many people said to ban vehicles from the beach.
Comments included:
- “The freedom of enjoying the natural environment is ruined by the intrusion of motor vehicles. They cause noise pollution, air pollution and constant visual pollution. They also undermine the plant life on the dunes. The freedom and beauty of the beach at Castlecliff that I can experience is constantly being threatened by motor vehicles.”
- “As a country, we need to change the designation that beaches are a road, so that vehicles are not allowed on that part of the coast,” another said.
Multiple suggestions included using CCTV to monitor the coastal areas.
Horizons Regional Council biodiversity coordinator Sue Moore said inappropriate vehicle use in the dunes did pose threats.
“This includes damage to special sand dune plants such as spinifex and pīngao as well as native birds such as oystercatchers and dotterels that nest in the dunes. Katipō and native lizards are also found in our dunes and are at risk from vehicles,” Moore said.
Spinifex and pīngao are native sand-binding grasses that once grew on almost every beach and mobile foredune throughout New Zealand but are now only found as remnant populations or where active replanting programmes have occurred.
“Many of the dune species are cryptic, such as banded dotterel, and recreational users are often unaware of the damage they can cause.
“Banded dotterels have very well-camouflaged nests and eggs, and the chicks tend to freeze when threatened which is not helpful when a vehicle is about to run you down.”
Forest & Bird regional representative Peter Frost said recreational drivers could go onto the beach and dunes with mostly no one to control it.
“Let’s face it, in New Zealand, there’s not a lot of space for people who choose driving as their recreation and so, naturally, they tend to go to places like dunes and beaches,” Frost said.
“We can have all these regulations, but if you can’t enforce them what’s the point? Our police are stretched as it is.
“When vehicles go off the road and over the dunes, the dunes start moving and they become unstable, and that creates pressure from the public because the sand blows everywhere.”
He said as the dunes became more established they would attract more birdlife.
“The main problem is there are also people who decide the dunes are a great place to tear over in four-wheel drive vehicles or ATVs.”
He said there was a known record of dotterel on South Beach.
“And that’s somewhere that has vehicle tracks everywhere.”
Whanganui District Council compliance operations manager Jason Shailer said vehicles on dunes could be difficult for councils to monitor.
In May 2019 the council introduced the Traffic and Speed Limits Bylaw, reducing the speed limit of vehicles on beaches from 100km/h to 30km/h.
He said this was to protect delicate flora and fauna living on the beach.
The council’s deputy chief executive Lance Kennedy said the solution was unlikely to be one answer or a management option “but a combination of options that work towards behavioural change”.
“We’ll be looking for further community input on this issue through our Coastal Action Plan work.”
He said the first section of the plan was likely to be released in early 2023 after community workshops.
