# RadioNZ, The Panel, Friday 31 March 2023

> https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018884170/the-panel-with-jenni-giblin-and-allan-blackman-part-2

> Transcript auto generated (and not checked for accuracy) by Aiko.app.
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It is 12 away from five, you're on the panel on RNZ National.

We have Alan Blackman and Jenny Gibbon with me this afternoon.

Thank you very much for your responses today.

SEGMENT BEGINS:

Now, the debate over banning vehicles on beaches, on a popular Northland beach got people heated this week.

And it's quite a national issue actually.

But the Waipū Residents and Ratepayers Association held a meeting to discuss this issue Wednesday night.

They'd like to see vehicle access stopped and we're joined by Marilyn Cox, the Secretary of the Association and a Breem Bay Coastal Care Trust member.

Marilyn, kia ora.

Kia ora, Wallace.

I'd just better put that right.

That meeting was just to sort of find out what the community wants.

We haven't a position at the Waipū Residents and Ratepayers.

I have a strong position through the coastal care group that I really do would like to see vehicles off the beach.

But that's not shared by all the ratepayers.

Good, understood.

Thanks for the clarification.

Give us the wider issue because the deal is this, that this is becoming increasingly an issue around the motor vehicle access on what I say some of our much loved beaches and that must include Waipū.

What a gorgeous spot it is.

Tell us about the issue there.

Well, actually on Waipū Beach, at Waipū Cove, there are no vehicles.

There's an area where you can go down to the beach and launch a boat.

But on the northern side of the Waipū estuary, vehicles are permitted.

They're permitted all the way up the beach to Ruakaka, the Ruakaka estuary where there's a 500 metre area where they're banned, which only happened a few years ago now.

But otherwise, people are allowed on the beach.

There's an issue around the northern side of the Waipū estuary because it's actually a wildlife refuge, designated as a wildlife refuge.

And it's a bit debatable about whether vehicles can or cannot go there.

But when they do go there, and it's in the nesting bird season, shore bird nesting season, it's really terrible.

You know, they evict lots of nesting birds and many take dogs up and it causes havoc really.

As I understand it, as I understand it, Marilyn, and our panellists will have a few views on this as well, many, if not most of the people at that meeting actually supported vehicles being on the beach.

Why?

Because they said, look, it's part of our DNA.

It's part of what we do.

We've always done this.

We take great care when our SUVs go on the beach.

What's the problem?

I see a lot of problems, but you're right.

Most people at that meeting were very adamant they didn't want that tip road beach access closed.

Well, the big problem is...

Done it for years, Marilyn.

Yes, they have.

And more and more vehicles are arriving.

Everybody's got a four wheel drive these days.

And I don't know, just because you've done something for years doesn't mean it's right.

There's a problem, I think, with beaches are very fragile environments, particularly the dunes, but also the hard sand.

There's a lot of little worms and things living that birds eat, particularly oyster catchers.

About 20 years ago, we had oyster catchers nesting maybe every hundred meters along the beach.

You don't see many now because it's just impossible with the vehicles driving up and down.

We've just had all these storms.

We've had the dunes washed out by all these cyclones and storms that we've all experienced.

And there's a really steep cliff face down from the dunes to the beach.

A lot of our pedestrian access ways have been washed away.

As those dunes reform, the vehicles are impeding that process because if they drive at the toe of the dunes where the sand's falling down off these crumbly, steep, vertical crumbling sand banks, they're preventing the dune rebuilding.

I'm interested, Marilyn.

Marilyn, we've got a panel here.

They'll love to have a discussion with you as well.

And Jenny, you have many beaches in Hawke's Bay, some of them highly affected by the cyclone, I can imagine.

But what do you think of this?

Yeah, we do have lots of beautiful beaches in Hawke's Bay.

And hi, Marilyn.

I'm probably in the Marilyn camp in that I don't support vehicles on beaches.

I think the exception to that would be obviously when you're putting your boat in and you've got to run your tractor up and down and pop your boat in.

I don't have a problem with that.

But people driving vehicles along the beaches, which does happen in Hawke's Bay a lot, I just think that beaches are places for people to relax and not worry about the safety of their children.

I think it's from an environmental point of view, there's a real issue there in terms of the fragility of the sand dunes and the species we have on our beaches.

So I definitely don't support vehicles on beaches.

I think it's a big no.

It's a big no.

Alan Blackman?

Yeah, probably a no from me as well.

I'm on your side here, I think, Marilyn.

But having said that, I think one of the greatest things I've ever done, one of the most amazing things I've ever done was drive my car down 90 Mile Beach.

It was absolutely brilliant.

Complete hypocrite.

Exactly.

Yes.

So do you get my point, Marilyn?

You've got the likes of Alan who says yes on one hand and yet drives his SUV at great pace down 90 Mile Beach.

Because you know why?

Guess what?

It's what we do.

And that's my point.

We are Kiwis, Marilyn, and what we do is we drive on beaches.

I think we have to stop thinking about what we want to do and grow up a little bit and think about what we need to do.

We've got to think about what we're going to leave behind for the next generation.

Reading that story, Marilyn, I think quite a few of the objectors, as far as I could see, were saying that they were disabled or they couldn't actually get down to the beach by any other way.

I don't object to disabled people.

No, absolutely.

But if they've got a disabled sticker on their car, then it's okay.

Well, they can get down to the beach.

I prefer to see us build more parks and easy access to the beach.

There's many places in New Zealand where that happens.

You don't actually have to drive onto the beach, but easy access onto the beach, that would be preferable, I think.

But I wouldn't object to a disabled person being taken to the beach in a vehicle.

So you need emergency vehicles, I guess, and there's life-saving vehicles.

There are some exceptions.

Marilyn, you've outlined the issue wonderfully for us this afternoon and getting a lot of response on this.

So look all the very best in the gorgeous precinct that is Waipu and hope to hear from you again.

That's Marilyn Cox, the Secretary of the Association Waipu and a Breem Bay Coastal Care Trust member.

And I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the disability issues that are happening in Waipu and how you're dealing with that.

I think the disability issue is a very important one.

And I think it's a very important issue.

We've got a lot of people who are disabled.

We killed off the tohoroa in Muriwai and Dagavore by driving on the beach, amongst other issues, and they never fully recovered.

It's quite sad, actually.

And I can recall knowing Dagavore, one of those beaches, and the tohoroa was just a taonga, wasn't it?

And to see those numbers decline, it's really, yeah, it is pretty very, very sad.

SEGMENT ENDS

Big response to Nick…