News Release
For immediate release
August 10, 2010

Delay Leaves Volcanic Cones Open to further Damage as Council Slow To Get On With The Fix

Damage caused to Auckland’s archeologically important volcanic cones by an errant contractor remains unattended to under heavy rain and is getting worse as the Council waits to give itself a resource consent to fix damage caused without a resource consent.

Frustration is building with how slow the response has been.

Ngati Whatua o Orakei heritage manager Ngarimu Blair was alerted to the damage caused by a fencing contractor cutting into hillsides and through sites on the mountain. The contractor had excavated a wide flat working area before putting up a fence without regard to the significance of the site or the damage caused.

Blair says there are two levels to this problem. First the ground is exposed and has been for several weeks now.
“We need urgent action. I can’t understand why the council can’t put this through an urgent fast track pathway to enable the damage to be worked on.

Blair says earlier in the week he was approached about having another site visit to assess what needed to be done.
“We have had site visits, we will no doubt have mountains of reports but what we want is for people to be on the ground sorting it out.

He says all of this highlights the larger problem that Auckland City Council has never really got its head around the idea that these are not parks like any other. These are archaeological and cultural sites of international significance.

“The fact they are being managed by farmers shows they are thought of as a series of small farms rather than one of the most accessible cultural sites in the world where generations of people lived before us.

“We first need to get on and fix this damage, today. Then we need to get a mindset change across Auckland that says ‘hey, we have something remarkably special here and we had better start looking after it’.”

ENDS

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