We Say – Civil disobedience – now or never

If One Mahurangi is serious about trying to stop Watercare from turning Warkworth’s town centre into a construction site (see column), then the time to act is now – not in 12 months’ time when designs are done, consents secured, materials purchased and contracts let. Turning the ship around at that point will be nigh on impossible.

A peaceful and coordinated civil disobedience campaign, perhaps targeting the Snells Beach wastewater treatment plant currently under construction, would send a strong message to the hierarchy at Watercare, and Auckland Council, that the businesses along Elizabeth and Queen Streets in Warkworth are not going to lie down and accept the pipeline plan as it currently stands. For them, too much is at stake including both jobs and livelihoods. We are not talking about a couple of weeks of inconvenience – Queen Street alone would be virtually closed for more than a year.

If we allow Watercare to ride roughshod over public opinion in this way, retailers and hospitality businesses in the town will close. Parking will disappear and so will customers, and people’s shopping habits will change. It could take years to reverse the damage done. As one retailer put it, after covid and the anniversary storms last year, this would be “the nail in the coffin”.

Watercare has yet to disclose why Elizabeth and Queen Streets is its preferred option for the pipeline route, but cost must be a factor. Their lack of transparency during this whole process, as well as the lack of any sort of community analysis, only heightens the town’s anxiety that the impact on businesses has been given a very low priority. At least – at the very least – Watercare must reveal what made Elizabeth and Queen Streets its preferred option.

And One Mahurangi should be urged to use civil disobedience as its first option, not its last.