Residents accept the inevitable

AuthorCharlotte Jones Local Democracy Reporter
Published date17 December 2020
All Awatarariki residents, bar one, have now “reluctantly and under duress” signed settlement agreements with the Whakatane District Council.

In the end, years of bitter wrangling between residents and the council came down to an anti-climactic hour-long Environment Court hearing during which lawyers tidied up loose ends.

The only decision to be made was how long the strongest critics of the managed retreat; Pam, Rick and Rachel Whalley, have left in their beloved home.

Their home was built in 1993 by the late Bill Whalley, husband of Pam and father of Rick.

The Clem Elliott Drive property was where grandchildren gathered for Christmas and where pets were brought to be buried.

The three watched as Judge David Kirkpatrick said the court would make the order sought by the Whalleys, Whakatane District Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, allowing the Whalleys to remain in their seaside home until March 2022, subject to some strict conditions.

All other residents have until March next year when, in a New Zealand first, a plan change under the Resource Management Act will take away residents’ existing use rights and effectively make them squatters on their own land.

Many have already sold to the council and moved.

The plan change and the district council’s managed retreat process, in which it bought residents out of their properties, was a result of a devastating debris flow in 2005 which destroyed several houses...

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