Club manager Richard Matterson addressed the Banks Peninsula Community Board last week to update the board on the current issues the club is facing.
Naval Point is one of the few areas in Christchurch where boats can be launched in all tides and is also one of the only flat recreation areas in and around Lyttelton.
Well aware that 2022 is election year, the club is considering options to raise public awareness and bring pressure at a political level of the concerns they have.
The club is the incumbent operator of a haulout, where boats are brought ashore, at Naval Point. The club has operated the haulout for users of all sorts of craft, and invested a lot of money over the years.
The club said it co-operated with Christchurch City Council to facilitate preparatory groundwork for SailGP by closing down their haulout operation, in spite of the fact that the haulout provides significant revenue to the club.
The club has now had feedback that city council will support a commercial haulout operator establishing a facility on Lyttelton Port Company ahead of the club.
The city council has offered a 12-month lease to Naval Point with two rights of renewal.
However, the club feels the lease document and length of tenure is not satisfactory for them to continue to invest in this facility, and risks the viability of the haulout reaching a point that the club must cease it’s operation with no alternative.
The other issue is the breakwater proposed by city council and currently being considered by staff was widely criticised by the club.
“Our opinion, in summary, is that the current proposal creates such a navigation hazard that it creates unnecessary and unworkable risks to our members using the new hand launching ramp, and thus the area would be better with no wave attenuation at all than the current proposal,” said Matterson.
The club says it needs the following:
- For council staff to put forward other options for the wave attenuation at Naval Point outside of an obstructive, fixed breakwater only benefiting the public, power craft ramp.
- For council to recognise the service and effort that the club puts into running a haulout yard for the benefit of the Canterbury maritime industry, for no one’s personal gain. The club needs security of tenure and honesty about council’s intentions, with clarity as to the expectations long term.
- More proactive communication from council with regard to the priorities and objectives in the development and our place in that.
Board chairwoman Tori Peden said they appreciated the issues are ongoing, and told Matterson that Naval Point is a big development and they are working through it.
