PHOTOS: ANDY CAMPBELL/FILE
THE future of Kāwhia’s town wharf will be decided in discussions this year as part of the Kāwhia/Aotea concept plan.
The Kāwhia wharf has been a sticking point with the Ōtorohanga District Council ever since a 200% fees increase in 2018 was ignored by wharf users.
The ŌDC had no bylaw in place to charge the wharf users or recover the unpaid fees.
In July 2020 the community board agreed to arrange a meeting with the commercial and recreational boating community to discuss setting fair and reasonable charges, how they would be collected and who paid.
The wharf was inspected in September 2020, with the 27 concrete piles found to be in good condition. The board resolved to have a meeting with wharf users at the February 2021 meeting, but Covid lockdowns interfered.
The discussion was resurrected at the first meeting of the local community board on February 2.
Council regulatory and growth group manager Andrew Loe said issues around the usage and charging for the wharf had been a bone of contention. The council was now proposing an asset management plan.
“So that we get an idea of the current state of the structure, and we get an idea of costs around maintaining the structure going forward – and ultimately a cost to replace the structure sometime in the future when it is no longer serviceable,” he said.
“We have run a series of regular structural reviews of the wharf by Tonkin and Taylor, so the plan is that we will receive an update from Tonkin and Taylor with probably an addendum on that which adds a bit of dollars to projects in their forecast, for work that is required on the wharf for the future.
“We will have a picture of where the wharf’s at; we will have a picture of the cost we will have to bear in the future to keep the wharf functioning. And then once you have those, you can start to say, ‘well where does this cost lie? Are the users going to pay some of it? Is the council going to pay some of it for a community good? Is there a user benefit? ”
“We want to be able to use the concept plan discussion to the whole community about the wharf, its usage its future and where people see the costs lying for that structure.”
The proposed scope and process for the Kāwhia/Aotea and Ōtorohanga Rural Concept Plan projects was considered at the council’s December meeting.
The plan is to work with Kāwhia through a Community Advisory Group, which will represent the Kāwhia and Aotea communities. Potential CAG members were expected to be drawn from board, council, and local mana whenua representatives (a separate mana whenua working group will also be established). The community board is expected to finalise CAG membership by April.
The Kawhia plan was last reviewed in 2003, board member Kit Jeffries said. He called for the community to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the concept plan discussion.
“It’s an opportunity that only comes around once in 20 years,” he said.
“This is not going to be a report for reports sake,” board chair Geoff Good said.
“I feel the next three years are a very important time for Kāwhia/Aotea. There’s new energy in the kitty from the better off budget.
“There’s quite a bit to spend, sea wall maintenance, the boat ramp, there’s money to be spent in Kāwhia, but it will all depend on the feedback the community board receives back from the community.”
