April 3, 2019
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Link road lanes not on agenda Whether or not the Matakana link road should be four lanes or two was not an issue within the remit of the hearings panel, which met in Orewa last week to consider the road’s designation and associated resource consents. During presentations by Forest and Bird Warkworth, Warkworth Liaison Group and Omaha Beach Community Inc, panel chair Alan Watson explained that the panel was not in a position to rule on whether or not the road should be four lanes, “unless it could be shown that two lanes would have adverse effects”. The Notice of Requirement for the designation and associated resource consents put forward by Auckland Transport (AT) was for two lanes in Stage 1 (opening in late 2021) and four lanes in Stage 2 (post-2036). “Under the Resource Management Act, there are distinct limitations on what we can do,” Mr Watson said. More than 150 individual submissions urged AT to ensure that the road was built with four lanes from the outset. Before amalgamation in 2010, Rodney District Council completed a Reserve Management Plan for the Wilson cement works site, which included a comprehensive heritage and conservation plan. Meanwhile, as the plan gathers dust on Auckland Council shelves, John Tate has had little encouragement in his concerns over the site’s deterioration.
Coverage of the three-day hearings can be found with this story at localmatters.co.nz
Warkworth man John Tate says nighttime intruders are destroying one of Warkworth’s most historic sites and Auckland Council shows little interest in doing anything about it. John spent months trying to get a Council officer to inspect the Wilson cement works ruins, but says when she arrived she professed more concern for
Currently, the site is fenced with danger notices warning people to keep out. John would like to assemble a team of volunteers to do some maintenance work and cut back the overgrown vegetation, perhaps allowing sheep and goats to graze the grass. He has fond memories of the site when
Council idle as historic site disintegrates those doing the damage. John lives on his boat at the nearby Mahurangi Marina. He says the intruders, who seem to enjoy daredevil antics running along high parapets on most weekends, often keep him awake and their vandalism is doing enormous damage. He believes one of the tall towers is in imminent danger
of collapse after vandals chipped away at the concrete with hammers. “But the Council officer expressed more concern that the graffiti artists might fall,” John says. “It wasn’t really what I got her down here to discuss.” He adds that even more damage is being done by vegetation, especially tree roots that are breaking up the concrete.
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