Get involved in the management of Wainui and Okitu Beach

Anyone interested in the how the beach at Wainui and Okitu will be managed in the future is urged to come along to a community meeting next week. Gisborne District Council has a strategy that covers how the coastal hazards at Wainui Beach should be managed. The Wainui Beach Management Strategy is now due for review.

To be effective the strategy needs input from those that have a close connection to the beach, says Councillor Brian Wilson who lives at Okitu and is a member of the project team. “Understanding the aspirations, concerns and issues of the community is important for those reviewing the options available to best manage the Wainui/Okitu coastal environment.”

“We hear people saying that sometimes the plans that Council asks for input into are already well developed. In this case we have a clean slate; everything in the existing strategy is on the table and before we even start talking about the beach, coastal hazards or sand movement we are asking people how they would like to be involved in the review. Some may be able to commit to the time involved being on a working party while others may just want to be kept informed of how things are progressing.”

“The final decision to adopt a reviewed strategy will sit with Council. However the aim is to ensure the review is informed by views that are widely accepted within the Wainui/Okitu community. The focus will be much broader than the engineering considerations. We also need to consider the economic, environmental, recreational and cultural aspects of the beach.”

The meeting will be held at 6pm on Wednesday 22 August at the Wainui Surf Club. An independent facilitator will run the meeting and discuss the proposed review process and how people can get involved.

The review is specifically about the Wainui/Okitu coastal environment, the hazards it faces and how those hazards should be managed. Erosion, foredune protection and tsunami will be addressed by the strategy. The quantity of water in the Wainui and Hanamatua Streams, managing stormwater and septic tanks, and the impacts of subdivision are issues of interest for Wainui residents but they are not part of this review.

A number of reports have been received about the Wainui coastal environment and these can be found on Council’s website along with a summary of their content. http://www.gdc.govt.nz/wainui-beach-management-strategy/

ENDS

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