Josh Dytor (21), of Corstorphine, plots his route into the
surf at St Clair yesterday over rocks left exposed by heavy
seas recently. Photo by James Boucher
The Dunedin City Council (DCC) is unlikely to employ any
stop-gap measures to combat erosion at Ocean Beach before its
draft management plan for the area goes to consultation, DCC
community and recreation services manager Mick Reece says.
Mr Reece said consultation was expected to be completed by
Christmas, with the council anticipating it would receive the
first submissions on the document within a month, once all
the information was made available to the public.
Earlier this month councillors agreed to consult the public
on the draft plan, prepared by consultants Tonkin and Taylor,
which was delivered to the DCC in July.
The draft plan covers a 4km area stretching from St Clair to
Lawyers Head, including Middle Beach, where major erosion
occurred as a result of severe storms in 2007.
Recent heavy swells have caused further erosion to the dune
face at various points along the beach (mostly between the St
Clair Esplanade and Moana Rua Rd in St Kilda), exposed a
large number of rocks along the beach, and forced the closure
of an access staircase leading from the gravel track between
the seawall and the tennis courts to the beach.
However the level of erosion was not considered severe, Mr
Reece said.
It would be "impossible" to guess what measures would need to
be taken until the present cycle of heavy swells had abated,
but the council was not likely to engage in "band-aid"
measures such as replenishing sand from other areas, he said.
"We will wait until the end of the week to see if we need to
spend any money in that area.
"We've learnt a lot in the last four years and what we're
seeing at the moment is the type of erosion we would expect
to see at least once a year where there is sand going
missing, but we fully expect for it to come back."
Mr Reece said indications were that a storm-event sequence
was occurring where sand would be taken away, and there would
be some movement of the dunes, but once the situation
returned to a more benevolent wave cycle the sand would come
back.
As far as the beach access staircase was concerned,
re-opening it was not a priority, he said.
"The staircase is a hassle, but our priority is that no-one
tries to use it and gets injured in the process.
"Health and safety is more important than access to the
beach, and there are other access points available," Mr Reece
said.
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