Long-term solutions to erosion and safety issues at St Clair Beach remained elusive at a meeting held yesterday.
Concerned residents, surfers and Dunedin City Council representatives attended the meeting organised by the St Clair Action Group, which is fighting for improvements to the beach.
Those who came seeking long-term answers to problems on the beach, including those caused by the sea wall, were told by council reserves and recreation planning team leader Richard Saunders solutions would be reached only after the issues had been thoroughly investigated.
The inquiry would be carried out over the coming financial year, if councillors gave final approval for $100,000 in funding set aside for a report on what needed to be done to remedy issues at the beach.
Mr Saunders also discussed work the council was going to do before winter shoring up the St Clair sea wall and sand dunes.
This comes after a memo to the council from environmental and engineering consultancy firm Tonkin and Taylor estimated it would cost $460,000 to repair sand sausages and $120,000 to repair Reno mattresses at the deteriorating beach.
Mr Saunders said at this stage the council was looking only at the replacement of the sand sausages "as a priority'' and not the replacement of Reno, or steel mesh, and rock mattresses installed at Middle Beach.
Dunedin resident Lyndon Weggery asked why the council was not committed to doing both as many residents, especially users of Kettle Park, were concerned about erosion near Middle Beach.
Mr Saunders said its rationale for focusing on the sand sausages was about getting the sausages replaced in a timely fashion.
St Clair resident Peter Haslemore said the council faced having to spend "serious money'' on the St Clair sea wall, which was deteriorating at a faster rate than anyone anticipated.
"If I was a councillor, I would be quite concerned that the wall is actually going to fall apart sooner rather than later.''
Asked by Cr Jinty MacTavish, who was at the meeting, for examples of deterioration, he said stress cracks were appearing and rocks were doing significant damage when they bashed against the wall during storms.
St Clair Action Group member Dr Richard Egan said the group would continue to pressure the council to ensure solutions were found.
