Broad plan for coast adopted - Question of Kettle Park landfill to be looked at

Investigations will delve into what should be done about an old landfill by Dunedin’s coast and how long a seawall at St Clair can be expected to last.

The composition and extent of the landfill under Kettle Park, and next to Middle Beach, would be looked into before any large-scale interventions, Dunedin City Council coastal specialist Tom Simons-Smith said.

Erosion and predicted sea-level rise prompted the council to consider how the area should be managed.

Some of the landfill material might need to be removed.

The future of the St Clair seawall, which is showing signs of age, may also need to be confronted in the medium term.

The Dunedin City Council yesterday voted unanimously to adopt a broad plan for how the coast from St Clair to St Kilda should be managed.

It focused on philosophical approaches after extensive engagement with the community, rather than pinning down specific techniques.

Cr Doug Hall suggested the old landfill should be mined, to put to use any recovered resources.

Cr Jules Radich, an advocate for repairing a wooden groyne at St Clair to trap sand on the beach, could see this fitting in with the plan adopted.

His campaign has struggled to find political favour, but Cr Radich pointed to a petition signed by 4500 people.

"The community are very keen to see the landfill remediated and also to see sand built up on the beach and they look, of course, to the old pole groynes," he said.

Several councillors were enthusiastic about the extent and quality of the council’s community engagement.

Cr Lee Vandervis said the coastal plan was thorough, but he questioned the money spent on producing what seemed to be predictable results.

He suggested the council would be better off trying experiments such as repairing the St Clair groyne than commissioning paperwork on such subjects.

Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins said this mindset did not appear to be a sound approach for handling important matters.

"We are right to take a strategic approach ... an integrated approach ... with a long-term view that is built on values that inform what you do.

"I think that’s a far more reasonable approach than trying a few experiments and seeing what might happen along the coast."

Mr Hawkins gave Cr Radich a withering rebuke for the way he had characterised the council’s intentions.

It was wrong to suggest the council had made decisions about which coastal management options it preferred, Mr Hawkins said.

-- grant.miller@odt.co.nz