Appeal not meant to endanger project

I have worked hard over many years to improve the environment in Eastbourne, as have people who supported my appeal, and I can assure your readers I am not risking construction of the shared path.

When I appealed the shared path consent, I was aware a number of people would be anxious that this might put in danger a project which all of us are looking forward to having finally complete, after decades of waiting. Safe walking and cycling around the bays is not to be sneezed at, for sure.

At the same time, though, there are inadequacies in the consent in relation to environmental protection, and I was not fully hopeful Council would listen to any concerns that ran against what they or their engineers wanted to do.

Since launching the appeal I have been working, with support from others, to get Council to agree that our issues could be dealt with under section 116 of the RMA, effectively allowing the consent to take effect, but parking some matters for later resolution. This is not ideal conflict resolution, but is the only thing available.

I took some time to explain all this to Ginny Horrocks, in her role as chair of the Community Board, but unfortunately it seems Council has convinced her that my appeal has to be opposed by any means possible. That of course helps Council to ignore some reasonable environmental concerns.

For example, two beaches, Mahina Bay and Sorrento Bay, have 2.5 m path width; but the other small beaches, York Bay and Pt Howard, have 3.5 m – which will mean practically no beach whatsoever there at high tide. Reducing path width at York Bay and Pt Howard beach areas would seem more consistent with what is done elsewhere along the path, and shouldn’t be a problem since path width changes 21 times already according to the Council’s plans. (Incidentally, those plans show that something like 36% of the path is already less than 3.5 m wide – contrary to what the consent application says.)

There are other issues around the consent on which more discussion is needed, and for which there is time. The Community Board stance is not helping that happen.

Geoff Rashbrooke

This opinion piece does not reflect the opinions of The Eastbourne Herald.