Otago Peninsula residents are worried someone will fall off the cliffs at Taiaroa Head if something is not done to send a clear message not to go near the edge.
Last year, work was completed on a new walkway and fence on the Dunedin City Council-owned land at the top of the cliff behind the Royal Albatross Centre car park.
However, the old fence that already ran along the clifftop was left intact in front of the walkway, resulting in a narrow area between the old and new fences.
The area is dangerously unstable due to erosion but a small gap between the fences situated at the end of the new walkway has allowed access. The council closed the gap in March but since then visitors have still been accessing the unsafe area.
Royal Albatross Centre manager Hoani Langsbury said staff regularly saw visitors walking between the fences. Often, they were seen climbing over the old fence.
Mr Langsbury thought people would still climb over the fence whether or not access between the fences was blocked, so more needed to be done to discourage people from entering the area.
''Our preference would be to get the palings removed [from the old fence],'' he said.
Barry Bridgman, of Total Managers of Risk, reviewed the situation in February and produced a report at the council's request. It recommended the fence not be interfered with, as removal would expose those working on it to additional hazards.
''The wooden fence will become redundant and I'm sure, in time, it will become overgrown and part of the scenery,'' Mr Bridgman wrote.
However, he recommended immediate steps be taken to block access to the area between the old and new fences.
At a meeting last week, the Otago Peninsula Community Board disagreed with some of the report's conclusions, saying if the old fence was left intact, it would continue to act as ''an invitation'' for visitors to climb the new one. The board wanted the railings of the old fence to be removed.
Dunedin City Council parks and reserves manager Lisa Wheeler said the gap between the two fences had been closed in March.
The council was following the recommendation that the fence not be interfered with but if people were still accessing the area, it was something that would need to be looked into, she said.
There was a possibility the council would do some planting in the area to stop people from walking there, she said.
- by Jonathan Chilton-Towle
