At this week’s final council meeting of the triennial, councillors discussed a staff proposal to abandon the road, following unintended consequences from its award-winning Project Reclaim environmental cleanup project last year.
However, documents show the council was already planning to abandon the scenic coastal route two years before it accidentally sliced the road in two, but had decided against public consultation.
The project was initiated in response to an "urgent environmental threat" posed by three historic coastal waste sites in the Waitaki district — the Hampden closed landfill and two uncontrolled fill areas along Beach Rd.
The solution, decided on in partnership with iwi, central government, stakeholders and the local community, was the full removal and relocation of about 69,000 tonnes of legacy waste to a newly developed class 1-engineered cell at the Palmerston landfill. However, more waste than anticipated was discovered and the subsequent removal resulted in the road being severed in two locations.
The project took place between February 2021 and December last year. It was adopted into the council’s long-term plan, with councillors additionally informed of progress across two workshops, as well as the June council meeting in 2023 to award a contract to Waste Management and Fulton Hogan. On top of that, council staff presented councillors with a series of project updates through council activity reports.
Public consultation took place after the road was severed, as part of the 2025-34 long-term plan, where Beach Rd North is to remain closed until a decision to reopen it is made.
"Three options with indicative costings were presented for the long-term plan consultation...The largest number of submissions (38%) recognised the high costs and uncertainty of erosion control efforts and were in favour of the option of managed retreat and road closure," a final staff report said this week.
However, while not indicated to the wider public, the project’s founding documents, which date back to February 2022, show it was always the plan to abandon Beach Rd.
The 2022 Outline Business Case report compiled by Morrison Low clearly states abandonment of Beach Rd was an option and the preferred option at that.
Option 3 put forward in the Morrison Low report clearly states that work comprised: "full removal at Hampden, full removal of material at Beach Rd and abandon Beach Rd".
That option was the "preferred solution" with the lowest ratepayer impact, the study stated.
The same report also stated a workshop was held with elected members in February 2022, followed up by a site visit before "council approved option 3 for inclusion in the 2022-23 annual plan".
It goes on to list "community consultation and a decision on the future of Beach Rd (confirmation to abandon post waste removal)" as a next step.
Morrison Low, it appears, was sure consultation would happen, the report saying "WDC intend to consult with the community regarding likely remediation solutions and associated costs".
The plan to abandon the road was also later reiterated in the resource application notification decision from the Otago Regional Council in December 2023, which stated, twice, "the applicant has stated that it is understood that the road is not to be realigned, resulting in the closure of the road from this location".
However, responding to the Oamaru Mail this week, a Waitaki District Council spokesperson confirmed there was no mention of the road when the annual plan went to consultation.
"Project Reclaim, a project to dig up and take the waste to Palmerston landfill, was included in the projects that were approved for the 2022-23 AP [annual plan] and it excluded anything to do with the future of Beach Rd," the spokesperson said.
"Council recognised that this project had to proceed irrespective of the impact it would have on Beach Rd," they said.
"The future of Beach Rd could not be decided on until we knew the extent of the excavation work and the subsequent remediation costs."
History repeated somewhat again at this week’s meeting, with Cr Rebecca Ryan and Mayor Gary Kircher left staggered that no landowners had been consulted on the proposal to abandon the road, or the other alternatives and costings contained in the staff recommendations.
"It’s regrettable that once again, we have not communicated with neighbours in the way that we should," Mr Kircher said.
The council voted unanimously to defer the decision to the next council, pending further consultation and further assessment of social value of retaining the road.
