Press release
Whangarei Green Party
December 3 2006
Ngunguru Sandspit proposal inconvenient but true
Landco's proposal for 350 dwellings on Ngunguru Sandspit is earning the property development company a new name - the
Grinch who stole Christmas, says the Whangarei Green Party.
"It's really bad timing on their part - they've stolen a happy Christmas this year from a lot of local people who're now
faced with preparing submissions opposing the plan, and raising money for experts to counter the company's evidence,"
said spokeswoman Moea Armstrong.
"However it's good timing in that locals will be able to call on the support of visitors to the area over the summer
holidays, starting a nationwide campaign against the plan. Landco won't be surprised - it's a case of 'buyer beware',
and they bought it knowing it was, among other things, classified as a wahi tapu area by the Historic Places Trust."
"The proposal does not comply with coastal zoning provisions so it should be straightforward for the council to reject
it. Add to that the bizarre stipulation that dwellings would have to be built up to avoid sea rise projections and it's
clear the Grinch's plan is based on huge profits built on nothing more than shifting sands."
The Al Gore climate change film "An Inconvenient Truth" is currently screening in Whangarei and Ms Armstrong recommended
Landco planners take the opportunity to see it soon.
"The only good thing to come of this is that at last the protection that has been placed on the sandspit will be put to
the test. The best outcome is for the Environment Court to reject the proposal outright, which should prompt the company
to apply for an independent valuation of the land, and ask public bodies to buy them out on the grounds that the land
cannot be reasonably used. There is provision in the Resource Management Act for this, for good reasons. The Greens will
then work with the Government and local bodies to secure the land in public ownership."
"When it is clear that the land is so priceless to all that it's worthless to developers, that will be the time for a
collective buyout at a mutually acceptable price to be arranged. The company could do us all - and itself - a big favour
by instigating this process right now."
"The land is a battleground where many people died over the centuries - the Maori equivalent of the Battlefield of
Culloden, which no-one would ever dream of subdividing. It's under claim and needs to be returned eventually to Te
Waiariki with its ecological integrity intact."
"Māori have been pivotal in the legal protections to date and it's now time for the rest of the community to support
them in their efforts to protect their ancestral land from exploitation."
Ends