{"id":481391,"date":"2026-06-17T05:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481391\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T05:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:37:10","slug":"whakatane-harbour-faces-berth-cuts-as-council-ends-marina-dredging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/481391\/","title":{"rendered":"Whakat\u0101ne Harbour faces berth cuts as council ends marina dredging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since 2022, it has not dredged upstream of its own wharf at Otuawhaki (the Green Wharf), leaving silt to build up<\/a> in the channel between Otuawhaki and the marina. <\/p>\n

The budget, most of which comes from Harbour Fund assets, had been in deficit over the past three years and not sufficient to cover the cost of dredging, council staff said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Nandor Tanczos said: \u201cOne of the arguments I\u2019ve been hearing is we have to do this because we have been doing it for 29 years. That just doesn\u2019t wash with me\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no formal memorandum of understanding and it seems to me that dredging in the past has been done on a \u2018you scratch my back, I\u2019ll scratch yours\u2019 basis. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s no basis for a council to be spending public money.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said people who were unable to heat their homes and struggling to pay bills shouldn\u2019t have their rates increased further to support a private club. <\/p>\n

The mayor couldn\u2019t think of any other example where the council funded, without contribution, other clubs.<\/p>\n

He did, however, support the club\u2019s aspirations to expand the marina.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do agree we need more berths, but I would expect those berths to make some contribution to the maintenance of what is, essentially, their own driveway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The club has informed the council that failure to carry out the dredging would likely result in the loss of the marina. <\/p>\n

\" Whakat\u0101ne Yacht Club members Ken Young, Jim Williamson, Jamie Brunsden, Tony Hill, Mike Rainey, Christine Bowering, Baz Dodds and Barry Cutfield attended a meeting at Whakat\u0101ne District Council where the club\u2019s $50,000 offer to support dredging was rejected. Photo \/ Diane McCarthy<\/p>\n

Its manager, Barry Cutfield, submitted the offer to help subsidise the dredging on behalf of the club, formed in the mid-1950s. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe club is part of the fabric of the harbour,\u201d he told Local Democracy Reporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [the marina] was built, it was a completely co-operative, supportive environment, a complete 180 degrees difference from what we\u2019re experiencing now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just about kills it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was heartened by several of the councillors saying they wished to workshop the matter further to better understand how they could support the club without increasing rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was good interest from some of the councillors.\u201d<\/p>\n

He refuted the ports and harbour operating budget not being sufficient to cover the dredging, saying the recent $172,000 deficit was caused by one-off expenses from the failed Te R\u0101hui Commercial Boat Harbour project. <\/p>\n

Council chief financial officer Paul Davidson confirmed $118,000 in consultancy costs and $216,000 in interest costs related to the project, saying these were partially offset by a $105,000 Government funding wash-up.<\/p>\n

\" Whakat\u0101ne District Council\u2019s Otuawhaki Wharf, about 180 metres downstream from the yacht club marina, also has trouble with silt build-up. <\/p>\n

However, the operating budget still did not stretch to funding the entire marina channel dredging. <\/p>\n

Further detail on the longer-term use of the Harbour Fund would be presented as a part of the upcoming Long-term Plan discussions.<\/p>\n

Tanczos had been told by staff the club would not support alternative, cheaper dredging methods the council was trialling and would withdraw their contribution if that method was used.<\/p>\n

Cutfield said this was incorrect. The club was not opposed to any form of dredging that had the desired effect, he said. There was no mention in the club\u2019s offer that alternative dredging methods could not be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want a result and it\u2019s not our business how they go about achieving it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of technical things [council members] don\u2019t seem to understand and I don\u2019t think their staff understand. We\u2019d be delighted to work through those with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Wilson James had spoken in support of the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes Whakat\u0101ne want to remain a marine town or are we just going to let the harbour silt up?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

He felt the club\u2019s aspirations to expand the marina to create 30 additional berths with an enclosing breakwater protecting it from siltation could possibly minimise the need for dredging.<\/p>\n

He agreed with Cutfield that the Harbour Fund should cover the cost.<\/p>\n

\" Whakat\u0101ne Yacht Club has plans for an additional 30-berth marina and breakwater to protect it from wind and silt build-up. <\/p>\n

Councillors Lesley Immink, Carolyn Hamill and Malcolm Whitaker also voted to carry out dredging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe marina was established with a lot of support from regional and district council because they wanted to position us as a marine destination,\u201d Immink said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t get on and dredge it this puts us at great reputational risk, for not only the marine sector but for other projects and developers that want to come into the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since 2022, it has not dredged upstream of its own wharf at Otuawhaki (the Green Wharf), leaving silt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,74999,5205,10666,114803,4726,6119,20589,24568,111,43,139,69,2240],"class_list":["post-481391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-berth","tag-council","tag-cuts","tag-dredging","tag-ends","tag-faces","tag-harbour","tag-marina","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-whakatne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481391","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=481391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}