On the 21^st of November 2009 Surfing New Zealand held its AGM at which the president Bruce Scott, conceiver of the marina resigned. His mission accomplished. Oh the irony!

Great Scott! Well done Bruce! You have left the officially recognised (and funded) organisation (SNZ) well and truly neutered with regard to protecting the people it is supposed to represent, in the Coastal Marine Area .

As I have predicted Steve Poulter ( on this site ; Who is Surfing New Zealand?  posted 02 10 09 ) has been elected as the new president. Not a good road sign for democracy though, when this can be predicted in advance. Whether he can truly represent Surfers concerns in the CMA, only time will tell.

To Bruce Scott, I dedicate the song from Johnny Cash, “Gods Gonna cut you down.” And this excerpt in particular:

“Well he may throw you a rock,  hide your hand, working in the dark against your fellow man, but as sure as God made black and white, what’s done in the dark, will be brought to the light.”

With regard to the marina, Mick Kelly stated in his march 2006 interview on Close Up: “We are not a bunch of developers, we are just local boaties wanting a place for our boats.”

on One News on 21/11/12 Kelly stated that this will be good for the real estate business of Whangamata.

Now the local small boat users have nowhere to park, the council is pushing them for parking fees, so much for the “kiwi battlers” eh Mick?

I hope the readers find it interesting just who owns large tracks of our prime coastal real estate and what their designs may be. If you don’t, you derserve the lot confiscated from you.

This article outlines the course of events that led to the extermination of this one of only two remaining mainland habitats for Oligosoma moco skink. An absolutely Protected Species. The article describes how the perpetrator(s) are immune from prosecution via the hijacking of council processes and neutralising of the DoC Hauraki office.

Disturbing in itself, but perhaps more so is decision No. A 134 /2008 of the Environment Court, presided over again by the now Late John Bollard, who again found in favour of the Marina Society. This court case has been parallelled to that of Powelliphanta Snails case on the west coast in an RMA Journal, but it is a far more dangerous a decision than that.

John went to great lengths to make sure that you do not need a consent to destroy an absolutely Protected species Habitat, nor do you even need correctly requisitioned Wildlife permits….

It is often trumpeted that the original consents had been thoroughly and exhaustively tested through the courts, yet  the Late John Bollard was heavily biased to the Marina Society and his friends in BioResearches ltd (The “environmental” consultants hired by the developers) Why did Bollard grant an interim decision to change the regional plan to Marina Variations instead of declining the application outright? why did Bollard deny Angela Sheffield (the author of the hydrological baseline study that was partially modelled, and presented to the court by the marina developers) the right to give evidence? the summary of her study stated this was the worst of the three sites earmarked for a marina.

In decision No. A134 /2008 Bollard went to even greater lengths to ensure that the developers could proceed, to the extent of wilfully exterminating an Absolutely protected and rare native species habitat with an eco - toxic weed spray.

And there is no corruption in New Zealand?

These developers (A  non for profit Community group!?!) can exterminate our Taonga, they are immune from prosecution, while you and I would probably face confiscation of equipment and fines for taking a few extra Crayfish.

To read the full story,

CLICK HERE

Whangamata 2005 burning of salt marsh and killing skink

What can you do?

1. Go to the Save The Waves website and lobby the Minister for the Environment to review the Consent process as administered by EW and TCDC, and in the space for personal comment add, “I also request that a full inquiry be called into this illegal and malicious destruction of a protected species, the Mokomoko Skink.”

The large red circle in the middle left, is the site for the Marina.

And directly upstream from the Marina site, another red circle in the lower right corner highlights the Sewerage pond which leaks up to 30,000 litres of the raw stuff each day!

The One that Property Speculators, ( under the guise of a secret club otherwise known as the Whangamata Marina Society)  would rather that you did not hear. Over coming weeks, other files will be added to this site, so that you can judge for yourself what power, ignorance, greed and manipulation of local bodies can do at the expense of the environment.

These signs (in close proximity to the proposed marina site) were removed  around 2001, yet people are still exposed to the toxic soup from the leaking waste water pond. Why?