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Whangateau residents who want to save five pōhutukawa trees along the domain shoreline took their case to the Rodney Local Board on September 20.
Leesa Irving said it would be a travesty if the 50-year-old trees were allowed to die as a result of erosion since Auckland Council removed a rip-rap rock seawall in 2012. She said a community strategy had been drawn up to protect them.
The options included installing groynes and protecting the trees with rock gabion cages, and local suppliers, contractors and sponsors had committed to supply what was needed.
“We’re not asking for money,” she said. “What we are asking for is that you don’t put us back through the resource consent process because if we have to do that, it will suck up any money we have and the trees will die.”
Irving added that council was unwilling to help, as it had always accepted that the trees would eventually perish and had offered replacements instead, which residents had rejected.
Chair Brent Bailey pointed out that even if council itself wanted to build something on the foreshore, it would still need to obtain resource consent.
“I know a lot of people are against it, but you will need to comply with the processes in order to get what you want,” he said. “I suggest that you stick with the process.”
