Community indignant at plans to move Black Swamp car park away from Te Arai beach

A local community is opposing plans by iwi to move a coastal car park 400 metres inland.

Te Uri o Hau Settlement Trust is developing land around Te Arai beach, an hour north of Auckland, after purchasing it as a commercial asset in its treaty settlement.

Auckland Council has granted resource consent, but Aaron McConchie from community group Save Te Arai said it had raised concerns.

“There has been a lack of conversation with members of the local community who actually use it.”

A diagram showing the possible change. Photo: Supplied by Save Te Arai

In response to Save Te Arai, Russel Kemp, chair of the iwi settlement trust, said in a press release: “The car park is being shifted because it is currently located within the sensitive dune area which is part of the coastal reserve.”

Mr Kemp called Save Te Arai's concerns “a scare tactic in a wider campaign”.

“What is bizarre is that for years these opponents claimed our development would damage Te Arai because it would encourage more ‘human activity’ on the beach, saying people threatened endangered shorebirds.

“Now, they’re claiming human activity is being curtailed and that’s an infringement of their ‘rights’. They need to make up their minds.”

Last week Mr McConchie contacted MP Kelvin Davis who was unaware of the issue. Mr Davis visited Black Swamp car park on Saturday afternoon.

“Moving access inland and denying vehicular access will make it difficult for families with children, people with surfboards, people on zimmer frames, as well as for the equestrian community,” said Mr Davis.

“But owners have the ability to do what they want with their land. I’m not going to criticise owners doing what they want with their land.”

However, Mr Davis said he would work on better access to the beach.

“That’s the issue I can try and progress. To make sure people have the ability to get closer to the beach, particularly if they have accessibility issues.”

Mr Davis’ visit to Black Swamp car park was a chance for him to hear the community’s thoughts but he was greeted with a plethora of opinions.

“It was a bit confusing hearing a group of 30 or 40 people all talking at once. It was a bit hard to follow everyone’s train of thought.”

Save Te Arai alleged that Auckland City Council had been complacent in allowing this to happen and had admitted to not checking the details of the resource application.

Mr Davis said those sentiments were echoed by the community.

“Whether that’s a fact or somebody’s opinion I’m not sure. It was hard to get a chronological, factual basis of where things were at.”

Save Te Arai is not concerned exclusively with stopping the car park being moved inland.

“Obviously the car park is quite a pressure point. But Save Te Arai is an umbrella organisation wanting to disseminate factual, up-to-date, unbiased information for the community,” said Mr McConchie.

The group is in the fact-finding stage and is waiting to hear back from the council about a date when the car park may be moved.