Community Supports Takapuna Beach Holiday Park: 100 to 1

An avalanche of emails continues to flood in to the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board from the local community, and the overwhelming majority want the Takapuna Beach Holiday Park to stay. Of the many hundreds of emails received by all of the Local Board members, only a few support Yachting NZ’s bid to replace the holiday park on public reserve land with their proposed yachting development.

“This information, just to light, makes Yachting NZ’s media release on 17 April ‘A proposal for a Community Marine Activity Hub on the Takapuna Beach Reserve has got a thumbs up from the public’ completely misleading”, says Jan Gopperth, spokesperson for the Save Takapuna Beach Holiday Park Supporters Group.

The results of the submissions for and against Yachting NZ’s Resource Consent Application were made public last Friday. In a quite unbelievable twist, Yachting NZ received 519 submissions supporting their Application and 498 opposing. Emails to the Local Board supporting the Holiday Park outnumber emails supporting the Yachting NZ development 100 to 1. “How then”, Jan Gopperth asks, “were the numbers so skewed in the Resource Consent Application process?”

“What the public doesn’t know is that Yachting NZ saw all of the submissions before the submission closing date. In other words, they KNEW the numbers they had to beat.

Jan Gopperth says “it is important to understand that submissions in favour of Yachting NZ’s application are NOT representative of the local community. The majority of them are likely to be from Yachting NZ’s national membership database of 31,000. “ We have been told by many yachties that most members of local yacht clubs (not to mention those outside of Auckland) have no idea of the true background to this story and do not appreciate that the YNZ development will replace the holiday park, even after being briefed by YNZ!”, says Mrs Gopperth.

“By contrast”, she says, “submissions opposing the YNZ Application are from the local community, and also regular visitors to the holiday park. These are the people who will be directly affected if this development proceeds and the holiday park is closed.

Jan Gopperth adds “The local community feels strongly about the holiday park and are asking us what they can do to show the Local Board that they are serious about saving it. More people are becoming aware of this issue every day and numbers are growing quickly, so we plan to help them express their passion for saving the holiday park by holding a massive rally at Takapuna Beach pubic reserve in the near future.”

What’s next? At 6pm on Tuesday 21 April at the Council building, 1 The Strand Takapuna, the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board will hold a meeting over this contentious issue. The Local Board will decide whether or not to hold a Public Referendum over the future of the Holiday Park land. The public is invited to come and have a say.

ENDS

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