Auckland City Council<\/a> and wound up in the Environment Court and the High Court, which refused the application and appeal.<\/p>\nIn the 2024 Environment Court found the company\u2019s ecological evidence was patchy, inconclusive and the cultural effects on mana whenua could not be mitigated.<\/p>\n
The court also found works undertaken had not been properly monitored by the overseeing council.<\/p>\n
MBL was then ordered to pay Ng\u0101ti Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust $450,000 and Clapshaw\u2019s legal and investigative costs of $50,000.<\/p>\n
![\"Save]()
Save our Sands (SOS) protesters deliver their 15,000 signature petition against P\u0101kiri sand mining to Auckland Council.<\/p>\n
Despite being granted a temporary consent, MBL filed another appeal but last week formally withdrew the application, ending the decades-long battle. <\/p>\n
The company also reached a private settlement with Ng\u0101ti Manuhiri.<\/p>\n
Clapshaw told NZME it was a win for the small community in one of New Zealand\u2019s biggest environmental cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had lost, right now there would be two parallel consents off P\u0101kiri Mangawhai generating hundreds of millions of dollars of income for the McCallums at our expense,\u201d Clapshaw said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stakes for the beach could not have been any higher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clapshaw said a highlight had been the combined community opposition but the area had paid the price for uninterrupted sand dredging for close to 80 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, it may rest and gently try to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clapshaw passed on his thanks to the activists, lawyers, ecologists, local iwi and thousands of people who had signed petitions.<\/p>\n
The company confirmed it planned to pursue applications filed under the fast-track initiative to take sand further north from neighbouring Te \u0100kau Bream Bay.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The new proposed sand extraction site is 4.7km from the shoreline. Photo \/ Bream Bay Guardian<\/p>\n
MBL will have to go before a panel to apply for a consent to take up to 150,000 cubic metres of sand for the first three years and 250,000 per annum thereafter.<\/p>\n
The proposal will affect a 14km area of seabed, 4.7km from the shoreline along the coastline of Langs Beach, Waipu, Uretiti and Ruak\u0101k\u0101, a move that has also sparked outrage. <\/p>\n
Spokesperson for activist group Bream Bay Guardian Mary Sinclair told NZME although they were exceptionally happy with the P\u0101kiri decision, the fight was not over up the coast.<\/p>\n
![\"Around]()
Around 1500 people protested against McCallum Bro’s Bream Bay sand mining proposal. Photo \/ Nigel Yellowlees<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long fight in P\u0101kiri and we\u2019re really, really happy for them. Now they can get on and focus on their regeneration of the environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sinclair said their group had been trawling through court records for P\u0101kiri as they prepare to oppose any applications filed by MBL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe environment court records of their appeal to renew their P\u0101kiri consent have got a lot of detail about how they\u2019ve acted over the last 80 years and how much the community has been devastated in terms of the beaches, seabed and sea life, as well as how they\u2019ve breached their consents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they think that by pulling out of P\u0101kiri and focusing on Bream Bay means they can sweep all of that evidence under the table, they\u2019ve got another thing coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinclair said the group propose to stand by local hap\u016b, Patuharakeke and Te Parawhau, to fight any action taken by MBL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not want our unique beaches, seabed and sea life destroyed and we all know how fragile that is in Bream Bay. We\u2019re in for a fight and we\u2019re not going to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
MBL did not reply to a request for comment from NZME.<\/p>\n
Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt feels like the end of the reign of the white witch of Narnia,\u201d Clapshaw said. \u201cFor many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2749,1561,2756,2748,2753,2755,2747,2752,111,43,139,69,2750,2751,2754],"class_list":["post-1781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abandons","tag-bay","tag-bream","tag-bros","tag-eyes","tag-kau","tag-mccallum","tag-mining","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pkiri","tag-sand","tag-up-te"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}