\u201cI asked him what he was doing. He said he had been sent out to remove the tiki bar, but he wasn\u2019t that keen on doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said it was for safety reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the council said due to an \u201cinternal miscommunication\u201d, a worker was initially dispatched to remove the tiki bar, along with the other materials placed on the beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was subsequently confirmed that the items for removal were the steps and loose pallets only.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said the steps were removed because they had been installed on public land without approval.<\/p>\n
Richard Brimer, who has lived in the beachside community for 40 years, said the tiki bar had become a social hub for the community, but people gathering at a particular spot had been happening at the beach since he was a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always locals going to the beach to socialise. The tiki bar is just an extension of that,\u201d Brimer said.<\/p>\n
He said it was \u201cridiculous\u201d that the council had come close to taking it down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically four bits of driftwood made into a small table and seats by locals.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for the steps, they were put there for a practical reason. To get people on to the beach safely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s quite a steep gap, we should have a seawall there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The steps were built by local qualified builder Luke Ottley and he said while he felt they were safe, he understood the council taking them away.<\/p>\n
Ottley said the tiki bar was a popular place for locals to meet and socialise and he would not support its removal.<\/p>\n
Councillor Hana Montaperto-Hendry, who lives in Haumona, said she was told there was a council worker at the tiki bar \u201cdoing their job\u201d and that locals had a \u201cdiffering view\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a chat, and we worked together to find an interim solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bar is still in situ for now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council spokeswoman said the council was aware of \u201cfurniture associated with the tiki bar\u201d and it was \u201cmonitoring the situation and will address any issues as necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n
There had been no complaints about the tiki bar, she said.<\/p>\n
Council officers had identified the steps during \u201croutine monitoring of council reserves and public spaces\u201d.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI asked him what he was doing. He said he had been sent out to remove the tiki…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,147580,17181,7972,5205,272016,119075,7557,272015,305,1976,10118,1329,272014,150845,111,43,139,69,10903,12062,530,1516,22858,14649,8690,163759],"class_list":["post-553846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-awanga","tag-bar","tag-beach","tag-council","tag-dismantle","tag-dispatched","tag-district","tag-hasting","tag-have","tag-hawkes","tag-internal","tag-member","tag-miscommunication","tag-mixup","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-popular","tag-removal","tag-residents","tag-staff","tag-stays","tag-stopped","tag-te","tag-tiki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553846","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=553846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}