![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4JSAEIJ_SUP040326CHURCHBAY1_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nA still from a video taken by a local resident shows a digger at work on the beach at Church Bay, northeast of Whang\u0101rei.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
Two waterfront property owners have been fined more than $6000 for carrying out illegal earthworks on a Northland beach.<\/p>\n
Reports of a digger moving sand and soil at Church Bay, in T\u016bt\u016bk\u0101k\u0101 Harbour, northeast of Whang\u0101rei, on 10 February sparked a flurry of complaints from local residents and hap\u016b.<\/p>\n
The Northland Regional Council sent inspectors to the bay and ordered a halt to the earthworks, which it said were being carried out without authority on the beach and a reserve administered by the district council.<\/p>\n
Regional council regulatory services group manager Colin Dall said one of two property owners involved had since been issued with an abatement notice and three infringement notices, or fines, totalling $4000.<\/p>\n
A second property owner had been issued with two fines totalling $2500.<\/p>\n
Dall said the abatement notice forbade any further unauthorised disturbance of the beach.<\/p>\n
The fines were the standard amount set in the Resource Management Act.<\/p>\n
Dall said prompt notification and inspection had stopped the property owners from carrying out further work, which would have resulted in more breaches of the RMA.<\/p>\n
He said nature had since taken its course with the scraped area of beach more or less back to its pre-disturbance state.<\/p>\n
Dall said the Whang\u0101rei District Council was also considering enforcement action relating to earthworks on the beachfront reserve.<\/p>\n
At the time, one of the property owners told local media he had acted to prevent further erosion after January’s torrential rainfall, and believed the situation was urgent.<\/p>\n
He described the earthworks as “hauling loose sand back up the beach”.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for local hap\u016b said she was “horrified” by the scale of the damage, which she described as covering an area as large as a rugby field.<\/p>\n
The Northern Advocate reported that some locals lay down in front of the digger to stop it.<\/p>\n