Campers shelter beneath the Pukemiro Pā and Puketapu Pā at Onaero Bay. Photo: LDR / Te Korimako o Taranaki
Onaero Bay campground bach owners have been invited to meet their local iwi after complaining they were ignored in planning for a revamp of the Taranaki beachfront reserve.
Seventeen baches sit on leasehold land at Onaero Reserve, which has been owned by Ngāti Mutunga since it was returned in the iwi's 2005 Treaty settlement.
Under the settlement, the land remains a recreation reserve administered by New Plymouth District Council, which is drawing up a new plan to cement co-management with the iwi owners.
A full-colour draft 'concept masterplan' features coastal stabilisation planting, a boardwalk restricting beach access to a single point, a bridge upgrade, and signs including the history of Ngāti Mutunga and the eight pā that were on the river.
Steve Burmester told councillors this week that he and other bach owners hadn't been asked for their views.
"If the people behind putting this glossy together had've spoken or engaged in a discussion before going to print this could've easily been improved.
"There has been no partnership during this consultation period with any of the bach holders."
Burmester said many bach owners had long experience at Onaero, some for over 60 years.
"We the bach holders want to form a partnership with NPDC and the Ngāti Mutunga people to ensure that we don't end up with an 'I told you so' at the end - and a lot of ratepayers money wasted."
Leasehold bach owners want to retain vehicle access to the beach. Photo: LDR / Te Korimako o Taranaki
But he said bach owners had not approached the iwi.
Councillor Te Waka McLeod said they should.
"I would encourage you to get to know Ngāti Mutunga. I'm an uri of Ngāti Mutunga and the office has been there for a number of years."
"They're all my cousins. Feel free to contact [our office] it's on the main road you all know where it is."
North ward Councillor Tony Bedford said the public, including bach owners, didn't seem to understand that NPDC was following the correct process.
"The difference here is that we are dealing as a council with the owners of the land."
"The bach holders are not the owners of the land, Ngāti Mutunga owns land administered by council - so they're the two parties that talk first to develop a plan."
Mayor Neil Holdom stressed that the draft master plan was just a starting point for consultation on a review of Onaero's Reserve Management Plan.
"The goal being that by the time we get to the end of process we've got the access to your knowledge and we've found something that will essentially balance the needs of all the users."
Burmester raised concerns about traffic, recreational and emergency vehicle access to the beach, and the risk of new facilities too close to the river being damaged by flood debris.
The council's planning and design lead Renee Davies said all those issues could be addressed during the creation of - and public consultation on - the reserve management plan.
She said staff previously kept in touch with bach owners via the campground manager, but now had direct and ongoing communication.
Taranaki councils are increasingly sharing management and governance duties with iwi and hapū but the typical co-management arrangement is turned upside-down at Onaero, where Ngāti Mutunga is the landowner sharing control with NPDC.
The report to councillors explained the Onaero Reserve Management Plan would be a co-management plan with Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Mutunga.
"There is already a working group in place… that has been meeting and working alongside Council officers on the delivery of this co-management plan," said the report.
Occupied for centuries by Ngāti Mutunga before confiscation by the Crown, the seven-hectare reserve nestles beneath historic Puketapu Pā and Pukemiro Pā and urupā, which face each other across the mouth of the Onaero River 25km northeast of the city.
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