█ SOME BUILDINGS NOW JUST 12M FROM DUNE’S FACE
Bill Brown, who initially raised his concerns in the Otago Daily Times last month, feared no urgency had been shown by council staff since then.
Spring’s king tides were still to come and could bring dramatic further erosion, he said in his written submission.
### ODT Online Tue, 11 Aug 2015
Disappearing dunes ‘an immediate problem’
By Craig Borley
Dunes along Dunedin’s Ocean Beach have receded nearly 9m in the past four weeks and will continue to disappear unless immediate action is taken, a St Clair resident told the Dunedin City Council yesterday …. [Bill Brown] took those concerns to the council’s community and environment committee, where he presented several aerial photographs showing the extent of recent erosion.
Read more
● ODT: ORC has role to play
Responsibility for erosion repairs at Dunedin’s Ocean Beach may not lie solely with the Dunedin City Council, its community and environment committee heard yesterday
● ODT: Erosion problem for rugby club
The Dunedin Rugby Football Club has made no decision on where its future lies but its training lights have been out of use because of costal erosion and sand is encroaching on to its main ground.
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### ODT Online Fri, 10 Jul 2015
Beach erosion: ‘For God’s sake, it’s time to take action’
By Craig Borley
Permanently fix the erosion of St Clair’s sand dunes or give up on most of South Dunedin – there are no other options, a St Clair resident believes. Heavy seas in the past month have washed out several metres of sand dunes.
Read more
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St Clair Beach / Esplanade
![St Clair Beach, Dunedin [wikimedia.org]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/st-clair-beach-dunedin-wikimedia-org.jpg)
![St Clair Beach 2014, Dunedin - img_1711b [uniquelynz.com] 1](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/st-clair-beach-2014-dunedin-img_1711b-uniquelynz-com-1.jpg)
(top) wikimedia.org – historical view | uniquelynz.com – 2014 view
### ODT Online
Sea wall plan ‘not about savings’
By Chris Morris on Mon, 24 Nov 2014
A squeeze on Dunedin City Council finances is not behind a push to defer multimillion-dollar options to protect the St Clair sea wall, Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull insists. A council staff report recommends any plans for major capital works – such as a groyne to protect the sea wall and properties behind it – be put on hold.
Read more
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Managed retreat….
### ODT Online Thu, 23 Feb 2012
Engineer says let erosion take South Dunedin
By Chris Morris
Allowing coastal erosion to reclaim Kettle Park should be the start of a wider retreat from South Dunedin, a Dunedin City Council hearings committee has heard. The call came from Sustainable Dunedin City co-chairman Phillip Cole – a former civil engineer of 31 years’ experience – as the committee considered a second day of submissions on its draft management plan for Ocean Beach.
Read more
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DCC Webmap – South Dunedin Jan/Feb 2013 [click to enlarge]
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DCC Natural Hazard Maps
Note: These maps are DRAFT only. The boundaries of hazard areas and hazard risk classification may be subject to change based on consultation feedback and further assessment ahead of notification. We strongly encourage feedback on any adjustments that may be required.
You also can use the interactive District plan map in the related information section, to see the current District Plan zoning, and the potential 2GP zoning, including the proposed hazard overlay zones, for your property
██ http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/whats-on/2gp/natural-hazards-phase/natural-hazard-maps
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The maps identified “extreme risk” land in red, which some Dunedin homeowners had “instantly associated with red-zoning in Christchurch”. –Sally Dicey, DCC policy planner
### ODT Online Thu, 25 Sep 2014
Concerns raised over natural hazards plan
By Chris Morris
Homeowners worried about being left in a Christchurch-style red zone – at least on paper – are calling for changes to the Dunedin City Council’s natural hazards plan. Their concerns come as council staff wade through nearly 200 submissions received since the council’s plan to tighten its grip on some city properties, to better protect against natural hazards, was announced in June.
Read more
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### ODT Online Mon, 12 Jan 2009
Council weighs costly Esplanade options
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council is weighing several “quite expensive” options aimed at preventing improvements to the Esplanade, at St Clair, crumbling in the next big storm. Parts of the Esplanade upgrade, which has so far cost more than $6 million, have had repeated structural problems since being largely completed in 2004.
Read more
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### ODT Online Fri, 19 Sep 2014
ODT: 100 Years Ago
St Clair to St Kilda esplanade proposed –ODT, 19.9.1914
The Amenities Committee of the Dunedin Expansion League is displaying a laudable energy in urging upon the Ocean Beach Domain Board the desirability of adopting a scheme for the construction of an esplanade along the sea-front from St Clair to St Kilda. Plans have been secured from the city engineer, and the Committee has fortified itself by obtaining a report upon Mr McCurdie’s proposals from the engineer of the Harbour Board, the advice of a marine engineer being justly considered to be of importance in connection with such an undertaking.
Read more
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Related Posts and Comments:
10.4.15 DCC: Natural Hazards
10.12.13 ORC restructures directorates
23.11.13 DCC: St Clair esplanade and seawall [public forum] 27 November
18.10.13 DCC: Final vote tally + St Clair boat ramp
26.5.13 [bad news] St Clair seawall #FAIL
10.9.12 John Wilson Ocean Drive … reminder to all of DCC incompetence
30.7.12 ORC on hazard risks and land use controls
28.11.11 St Clair seawall and beach access
7.12.09 Coastal protection zones
14.11.09 From the log books of a twenty-year distress #DCC
24.8.09 1. STS response – appeal 2. Coastal protection – comments
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Elizabeth – having encouraged Bill to front up to Council yesterday I took the trouble to be present when he spoke. He certainly pulled no punches in his visuals. There is a major problem with sand dune erosion at Middle Beach. It is getting worse and accelerating and Bill warned Council that to do nothing past “holding action” is to invite major, major cost at ratepayers’ expense because the whole of South Dunedin is potentially affected. It is interesting that two Councillors (Lord and Wiley) had visited the beach area last weekend to look at Bill’s concerns first hand. But I don’t know about the others. Bill got good publicity last night on Ch39 and front page on the ODT this morning. In answer to a Councillor question Bill said that in his opinion the sand dunes will hold out for the rest of the year notwithstanding the spring tides but he is not confident for 2016. He zeroed in on current Council policy which is to have a holding action for 10 years as recommended by the 2011 Tonkin Report as an interim solution. The only trouble is that given the accelerated state of erosion Mother Nature is not gracing us with 10 years! Anyway, the best thing that I saw was Bill and Richard Saunders (Group Manager Parks and Reserves) walking off together after the public forum to talk further. Be rest assured Bill is not letting this go and has the full support from the rest of us concerned citizens and ratepayers. Afterall as Bill wisely pointed out to me – a lot of us may live on the hill suburbs but financially we will still be affected if nothing is not done soon. My personal view is that Council’s proposal to extend the sand sausages along Middle Beach is not enough and a buried backstop wall reinforced and backed up by a rock “revetment” is the better long-term option as recommended by the 2011 Tonkin Report.
Any person reading this and recalling taking coffee in the Cafe by the Salt Water Pool will be impressed by the rockwall arrangement that has been set up to protect the Seawall. Many people I talk to question why Council cannot extend this arrangement right along the beach. I suspect it is a matter of cost.
One further thing that I have learned from Richard Saunders is that despite my public resolution in August 2013 no follow up action was taken by Council to set up a St Clair Liaision Group. However Richard has promised to rectify this and following his initial discussions with Bill Brown I have urged him to first run Council’s long-term solutions past Bill and his colleagues to gain acceptance before going public with them at a future public meeting.
Thanks Lyndon, a good summary for what-iffers to focus on in pushing DCC to action, sooner not later.
Lyndon, you say that council has decided on a policy of ‘holding’ action for 10 years as recommended by the 2011 Tonkin Report as an interim measure. Interesting thing is that apart from $250,000 budgeted in 2015/16 for ramp and stairs repairs, there is not another cent provided for in the new LTP Ten Year Capital Expenditure Programme as shown in pages 151 thru 171. So let’s hope God reads that.
We’re buying a Mosgiel (leisure) Pool instead – it has precedence, Calvin.
I am not sure how you manage a retreat once the ‘enemy’ is past your primary (only) line of defence, is spreading itself all over the place and you have nothing in reserve. A bit like the BEF and the French managed their respective retreats just prior to Dunkirk I presume. Achtung Paddler! as Guderian would have said.
A number of budgets would have to be part of the Cull ‘retreat management’ process.
Two obvious big ones that are the DCC’s direct responsibility would be:
1) A complete rebuild of all the City’s drains including a new sewage plant (on the Oval?) and extend outfall
2) A 2 km long ocean bridge or high capacity ferry connecting the newly built Port Lower Princess Street with the now heavily populated Otago Island (nee Peninsula).
Not sure how he plans to pay for these.
Managed retreat – isn’t that when people responsible for outstandingly bad decisions retire to Queenstown and Wanaka?
If only we had extradition treaties with those towns……..
Rob, Dave Cull relies on his own good judgement and Dept of engineers. Oops! I forgot, we don’t actually have a dept of engineers anymore do we? Sausages from the Mad butcher might do. Like the French ‘Maginot Line’, when it was breached Dunkirk was the only alternative.
Easy. Google: “stop sea erosion of sand dunes”. Your answer is there. Not expensive. Also, used tyres have been used to bolster against sea tides. This erosion must be stopped now, otherwise the sea will reclaim what it used to have, that is South Dunedin through to the harbour. Costs shouldn’t matter. The beaches are the spine of Dunedin. Start now.
Tyres? You must be crazy!
9000 websites will be produced by our leading planet-saver to prove that there are Chemicals in tyres. Chemicals!
Worse, petrochemicals. Woe is JM.
PETRO-chemicals! The intense hot tears that burst involuntary from my rolling eyes are melting my pearls.
We used to pump poo out there. We still do. Further out, I understand.
Of course, the greenies will do things much better. I haven’t seen any better suggestions. If it’s left much longer the erosion will ruin so much. The tyre suggestion was one of many solutions you will see by Google. The more negative advice for this dilemma the more procrastination in the fixing of this problem. By the way, I am not crazy and I am sure you wouldn’t say that in front of me.
Sorry Chris, I intended to show support for your kind of lateral thinking* while at the same time pointing out the nuttiness of our current planet savers, one in particular, who would rather be Pure than practical.
*it should qualify as extreme greenness, re-using tyres that already exist, to solve a problem that already exists and is worsening by the day.
Today I see that the council is going to build a ramp with ropes and used tyres. I realise this is a ramp, but the same materials can be used to bolster sand dune erosion. Good and a cheap decision council. Now go the greenies.
Nothing’s changed. DCC’s unmanaged retreat continues.
18.8.15 ODT: Harbour sand for beach
They’ve put a whole lot of concrete blocks in the middle of Coughtrey Street – perhaps that’s where they are building their defensive barricade against the tide.
Either that or they’re trying to kill cyclists and motorcyclists because the concrete blocks are nearly invisible on a dark wet night – it’s only a matter of time.
The majority of them have already been hit as can be seen by the tire marks on them.
If anybody else did something like that they’d be arrested by police for endangering public safety, not to mention unbelievable stupidity.
It would be inaccurate to call the DCC’s decision making on the South Dunedin cycleway diabolical and appalling, because that would be an understatement.
Elizabeth – you’ll remember after Bill Brown did his excellent presentation to DDC Community & Environment Committee on St Clair sand dune erosion last Monday week that his famous “red line” measurements were front page of the ODT the next day. Well, the worrying fact is that I met him today at the beach where he told me that red line had already moved back further by one metre!!! That’s a further one metre erosion in 10 days and one metre closer to his back fence. Next Monday I have booked 5 minutes to address the full Council in their Public Forum about the apparent lack of action with Infrastructure renewals in our southern part of the city stemming from the 3 June floods. Wish me luck!!!!
Lyndon, I will try to get to the Public Forum. Thanks for the update on COASTAL EROSION. If I were you I would write to and PHONE CEO Bidrose about it asap and get Bill to do the same. AND, copy in ODT (editor @odt.co.nz) and Fairfax Media (hamish.mcneilly @fairfaxmedia.co.nz).
Lyndon, I hope to make it to this meeting. And bring my trusty little voice recorder. So at least I might be able to accurately transcribe – and post here – any delightful (or otherwise) comments made by councillors at the meeting, comments which the ODT might miss – without people having to wait dreary weeks for the meeting video. And then having to muck about, searching for the good bits.
There is definitely a fun aspect to recording council meetings. I’m not sure exactly why but it has a tinge of ‘the biter bit’ scenario, akin to (very subtly) bullying the bullies. I heartily recommend it to other council watchers. Very economical, as you can get a voice recorder from somewhere like DSE for about $100. You do have to inform the meeting chair that you wish to record the meeting. In practice, you can ask the governance staff to convey the message to the chair who must subsequently let the meeting know. But since the meetings are public, anyone has the right to record them, provided they don’t cause any disturbance.
Of course, Elizabeth, you are doing a great public service with this website, because the ODT would surely not accept any alternative views to their own council reporting, even if supported by a transcript.
And Lyndon, thank you for noting that the council meeting date has been changed. The DCC in the past has acted very much like a closed shop, changing meeting dates and/or venues at the last minute. And the Customer Service Centre people are usually the last to know. (Apart from inconvenienced members of the public.)
I would like the Customer Service centre staff to be supplied with a very economical whiteboard, on which they write what meetings are in that day and the venue. This would ensure that they themselves actually know and very likely also prompt them to ensure that the council’s website is kept updated in this respect.
Damn it. How about the Mosgiel Pool?
Peter. If South Dunedin floods with sea water I dare say insufficient ratepayers and renters will be left at Dunedin to: fully fund the “NEW” Mosgiel Pool through rates like the City Councillors conspire to have happen (according to the Long Term Plan).
South Dunedin is closer than Moana Pool to Mosgiel. Tweak boundaries, voila! Mosgiel salt water pool!
See new post:
Paul Pope’s strategic overview of coastal conservation #Dunedin
Lyndon; good luck with your meeting, but as you will know, and I drew attention to it in my opinion piece published on 18 August, there is no money for either the St Clair Sea Wall nor the Dune restoration in any of the LTP Capital Expenditure projections. Any remedial work can only come from increased borrowing, unless other items are deferred. Dave Cull and his ‘cabal’ are not likely to defer any of his favourite projects, so I’ll be interested in their response to your concerns.
Thanks everybody for your support. Bill is seeing Richard Saunders this week and no doubt will alert him to the further (and accelerated) erosion. One of the points that I want to highlight at the Forum is the apparent lack of action to divert further funds to the Infrastructure 10-year strategy as part of the recent LTP process. What concerns me is that following the 3 June floods Council minutes show no formal “debrief” held nor any increase in funding taken. All Council did was consolidate certain “unfunded” projects into the LTP, ie Mosgiel Pool etc. It seems from their discussions (or lack of it) as if the extreme weather event never happened! My presentation will show that we need to spend $75M in terms of the Beca Report on protecting South Dunedin and approx. $10M in terms of the Opus and Tonkin Reports in protecting the coastline at St Clair/Middle/St Kilda Beach.
Hopefully without increasing our debt or putting pressure on further rates increases we can persuade Council to divert the necessary funds away from “nice to have projects” as I believe they should have done in the LTP process immediately following the 3 June floods.
By the way I have just been informed by Council staff that next Monday’s meeting (with public forum) has been put off to Tuesday 1 September at 1.00 p.m. because of the Representation Review Hearing deliberations.
Submission received [lightly edited]
Tue, 1 Sep 2015 at 7:27 p.m.
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Dunedin City Council Public Forum
Tuesday 1 September 2015
Infrastructure Strategy: South Dunedin Flooding
Thank-you Mayor and Councillors for giving me this opportunity to speak to you on a very serious matter that has been exercising my mind as a Dunedin resident and ratepayer for some time. It is simply this – the urgent need to address the challenges that Mother Nature is throwing at us in the southern part of the City and the apparent lack of willingness and co-ordination by Council staff to address those issues in a way that restores confidence in affected residents. On Monday 17 August in reply to a letter expressing concern that South Dunedin lacks a serious drainage system the ODT published a reply by a senior manager who stated “the DCC has undertaken a number of projects and investigations relating to drainage of both wastewater and storm water in South Dunedin and continues to look at opportunities for improvement”. Hardly words of reassurance for the besieged property owners in South Dunedin.
To be specific Wednesday 3 June 2015 was a wakeup call for all of us. A graphic reminder that when an extreme weather event as a 1:25-50 year flood hit the city, vulnerable areas were quickly inundated and extreme water and sewerage damage inflicted on many properties.
The flooding showed up serious deficiencies in our ability to manage the huge wall of water that descended from the hills onto the flat. Aged stormwater pipes that are long overdue to be replaced, mud tanks that had not been cleaned and maintained in months and pumping stations like Portobello Rd that failed to function for unknown reasons. Overall, a stormwater system’s design capacity that urgently needs upgrading.
The understanding that these type of weather events could happen more frequently has been highlighted in major reports presented to Council and I refer to the Blair Fitzharris report of 2010 and the Beca report of 2014. Both reports outline the challenge facing us all and both make sound recommendations to address the serious issues (Beca recommends a $75M network of pumps and wells); sadly, these are not covered in the 30-year Infrastructure Strategy as part of the current LTP. To be fair the Strategy does state “[h]arbour side and south city has a dense population of 10,000 residents with an asset value of $4.3B and the main threat is from rising groundwater as levels are forced up by rising sea levels”. Furthermore, it states “the Council’s stormwater system is designed to accommodate 1:10 year rainfall intensity events. As climate change kicks in these events will increase in frequency in the future.”
I am encouraged that through the LTP process Council resolved to favour option 2 where future renewals over the next 10 years are stepped up and funded by rates rather than debt. But what worries me is when you look at the LTP and particularly the forecast Financial Statements for the next 10 years there is little capital expenditure put in the Plan to address these potential flooding issues. All I could find is $4M planned for the Surrey St stormwater diversion scheme for 2015-17 despite a promise from Council staff “to bring forth other planned improvements to ease pressure on South Dunedin’s pipes”.
Furthermore, after the disaster of 3 June I waited for Council to receive a formal report on how its infrastructure performed that day and what major improvements needed to be accelerated and further funds diverted to the Infrastructure Strategy as part of the LTP process. A search of Agendas and Minutes for subsequent Committee and Council meetings showed nothing and all we saw was funding set aside for other projects that in the minds of South Dunedin residents were a much, much lower priority.
Apart from a curious response from Council talking about a “managed retreat” and “time to start talking about the end game”, there has been nothing apart from an unsubstantiated claim that “conversations have begun with the South Dunedin community”. (ODT 20.8.15)
Just over three weeks ago at the Community and Environment Committee [meeting] my colleague from Victoria Road, Bill Brown, presented another wakeup call to Councillors in the form of serious sand dune erosion at St Clair Beach. His concern was that despite the official policy of a holding pattern for 10 years in terms of the Tonkin Report the toe of the dune face has moved back markedly and his famous “red lines” show that Mother Nature won’t wait that long. Incidentally, since those revelations he now tells me that the red line has eroded a further 3.4 metres since the 6 August. Bill made the point that it was now time to seriously consider the best recommendation of the Tonkin Report (a buried backstop wall) and ensure adequate funding was made available to protect the coastline. So what do we have in the LTP by way of future capital expenditure funding? – Nothing that I can see between pp151-171. Yet in answer to a question by one Councillor, you will recall that Bill emphatically told us there is enough sand dune depth to survive the spring tides to the rest of this year, but if the erosion retreat continues at the present rate we have 12-18 months left before a serious breach may occur.
Other locals are worried about the state of the St Clair Seawall – another Council “holding action” (despite the Opus Report) with $225,000 allocated on p.152 to meet on-going monitoring and maintenance costs of the sea wall and protective rock formation. On a positive note, the rock wall or “revetment” at the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool works well and many locals wonder why Council won’t extend this success story further along the seawall and into Middle Beach – known as Area 2 in the Tonkin Report. As one Councillor said to me recently, if it costs $10M to do this it is ratepayer funds well spent if only to protect the extra sand sausages that are envisaged for Middle Beach.
One way or the other we have to do something and it seems to me that Council have three excellent reports sitting there and covering the south of the City that are well past the “holding action”. All it takes is coordinated leadership amongst Council Managers to bring a wider perspective to the problem. Perhaps our infrastructure and networks general manager Ruth Stokes is the person to undertake this role […] everyone is impressed with the decisive way she sorted out the cycle way mess.
Lyndon Weggery
[ends]
### ODT Online Tue, 1 Sep 2015
Piling first stage of beach repair
By Craig Borley
The long fight to repair damage from this winter’s pounding of St Clair Beach is under way. Fulton Hogan contractors were on site yesterday at the northern end of the Esplanade, installing plastic sheet piling to the seaward side of the temporary boat ramp built for the St Clair Surf Life Saving Club in 2013.
Read more
39 Dunedin Television Published Tue, 1 Sep 2015
### dunedintv.co.nz Tue, 1 Sep 2015
Temporary access ramp to be installed at St Clair
A temporary beach access ramp is about to be installed at St Clair. The ramp is an essential part of surf lifesaving efforts over summer.
Ch39 Link
How contrary is this academic ? An asteroid, not the Pacific Ocean, phew.
### ODT Online Thu, 3 Sep 2015
Dunes in no danger, geographer says
By Craig Borley
It would take an asteroid hitting the water off Dunedin’s coast to bring the seas needed to breach St Clair’s dunes, a University of Otago geographer says. The dune’s long-term future was good, coastal erosion expert Dr Wayne Stephenson said, and there was virtually no risk to property due to erosion this year.
Read more
Hope he is right but all we have seen is steady, unrelenting erosion in a short space of time.
How much is the land on the city side of the remaining dunes below sea level. What is stopping further erosion till the remaining dunes are gone? What then?
Interesting to note that in the view of Dr Stephenson that there has been no increase in sea level. Oh, how that must grate with Cull and co who desperately want all of Dunedin’s issues to be put at the foot of climate change. If it can’t be, then it must be neglect of the basic jobs of Council – oh dear.
Do glimpse DCC’s Draft Infrastructure Strategy predicated on CLIMATE CHANGE – released for consultation 24 March 2015.
Click to access Infrastructure-Strategy.pdf
Doesn’t mention the mud tank issue, the lack of maintenance to stormwater drains and pumping stations (a new post about this to come!), and how DCC FAILED SOUTH DUNEDIN RESIDENTS AND PROPERTY OWNERS and won’t admit council LIABILITY. Such that documents are being buried by DCC Corporate Services.
Oh, has the letter from the former City Water engineers to DCC at the height of the crisis about what to do with the pumping station screens come to light yet?
Indeed I have sent off a LGOIMA request this evening on and about this very subject, with Cc ODT Editor.
I will release my request and other information received today soonish.
I note today that in Clyde a suction truck was going round the streets and sweeping and sucking all the gutters clean. When was that last done in your Dunedin street?
Only suckers seen round our hood are the ratepayers.
Today I saw 6 DCC employees riding their bikes carrying mudscrapers and depositing the mud on the St Clair foreshore. They all then held hands and played ring-a- rosie on the beach whilst singing praises to mistress Jinty!
What ho Dunedin
The 6 DCC employees were probably playing ‘ring-a-ring-a-rosie’ rejoicing in the knowledge that their Mayor Dave Cull and Enterprise Dunedin manager John Christie were off the China for three weeks to save Dunedin. When they come back (more’s the pity) nothing will change except the ‘petty cash tin’ will be lighter.
Could Mr Christie be tagging along to see if he can con the Chinese into funding his wife’s pipe dream. The new Mosgiel Pool.
Jacob, I’m not sure that many Dunedinites have clicked yet to the Director of Enterprise Dunedin, John Christie, being the husband of Teresa Christie who is pushing the new Taieri/Mosgiel Pool project for their business buddies ?! It is an unholy alliance, given where Mayor Cull and ODT might well be sitting.
Let us all hope that they were not swept away by the suddenly rising tide bought about the 82% increase in rainfall experienced in Dunedin over recent times. I assume that the six then rode their bikes in a convoy accompanying Mayor Cull also riding his bike out to the airport to jet off to China for his talks which I see have no quantifiable outcomes. Wonder what the KPI’s are for this jaunt. Any business leader heading off on a “mission” should have some projected outcomes to be able to measure whether the “mission” was worthwhile. So much easier to say that such trips establish or build relationships….failure to get business is then able to be completely ignored.
I’m sure Mayor (middle name Junket) Cull will be taking his best off-the-shoulder dresses to win MONEY HONEY for education, hotel building, aquarium, airport runway extensions – ie TO HELL with the ravaged living at South Dunedin on crumbs, while council ‘bureau-cats’ obfuscate.
The comments of a so-called local geography expert are most unfortunate because now the DCC is tempted to take its foot off the panic pedal. Even sadder is the understanding that this guy’s contention cannot be refuted because DCC still have no monitoring equipment along Middle Beach at the toe of the sand dunes to determine the exact rate of erosion. This in sharp contrast to Bill Brown’s excellent monitoring at the top of the dunes which the DCC are not refuting.
Lyndon, the erosion is very real that’s for sure, but as Russell observed Dr Stephenson states there has been no sea level rise outside the norm of the last hundred years. Somewhere in the vicinity of 1.14mm per year. That suggests that the whole panic about 800mm to 1.6m by 2080 is just humbug.
39 Dunedin Television Published on Sep 4, 2015
No quick fix for serious erosion at St Clair beach
### dunedintv.co.nz Fri, 4 Sep 2015
No quick fix for serious erosion at St Clair beach
A long term approach to serious erosion at St Clair beach is being considered by the city council.
Ch39 Link
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Dunedin City Council – Media Release
St Clair ramp work to start this week
This item was published on 31 Aug 2015.
Work to rebuild the temporary ramp at St Clair Beach is scheduled to start early this week.
Dunedin City Council Group Manager Parks, Recreation and Aquatics Richard Saunders says the work will ensure the St Clair Surf Life Saving Club and the public have access to the beach. It will also provide access for equipment when future remedial work on the sand dunes is carried out.
A temporary ramp at the north end of the promenade was put in place in October 2013 after the original ramp was removed following storm damage. The temporary ramp has been damaged by recent heavy seas and high tides.
The exact starting date for the work will depend on the tides. The repair work will take three to four days and cost an estimated $25,000 to $30,000. Mr Saunders says rebuilding the temporary ramp will provide access so remedial work can be carried out to protect the dunes from further erosion. The planned work includes repairing or replacing damaged sand sausages before next winter. In the meantime, protection work at the ‘toe’ of the seawall will continue, as will dune reinstatement work, using sand dredged from the Otago Harbour.
Following the remedial works, the DCC will begin investigating options for long term protection of the area of Ocean Beach adjacent to St Clair sea wall. Community feedback will be sought at key stages of the overall project.
Contact Richard Saunders, Group Manager Parks, Recreation and Aquatics, Dunedin City Council on 477 4000.
DCC Link
As unmanaged a retreat as ever!
### ODT Online Tue, 8 Sep 2015
Damaged St Clair piling to be replaced
By David Loughrey
Work at Dunedin’s St Clair Beach to shore up a temporary boat ramp has succumbed to the waves after a week, but the contractor will pay to fix it. Fulton Hogan contractors last week installed plastic sheet-piling to the seaward side of the ramp built for the St Clair Surf Life Saving Club in 2013.
Read more
This “quick fix” approach to St Clair Beach is taking on the same farcical proportions as the recent debacle over the South Dunedin cycleways. There is concern emanating from certain Councillor quarters as to the wisdom of constructing a ramp from the end of the Esplanade to provide access to Middle Beach for heavy machinery. Has nobody thought of the damage such access over the existing Esplanade cobblestones and tiles could cause should this plan eventuate? Last time access was sought in 2009 heavy machinery used the beach (at low tide) and created the famous sand sausages. This is a classic case of “Nero fiddling while Rome burns”. I know this to be a fact judging by the cold reaction I got for my presentation (see above posting) to Council on Tuesday 1 September.
### ODT Online Fri, 12 Feb 2016
Erosion measures delayed
By Craig Borley
A desire to get the latest St Clair erosion protection measures done right first time has led to their installation being delayed. […] Plans were put in place last year by the Dunedin City Council to install short-term protection measures, centred on the replacement of the area’s sand sausages. While those measures were initially planned to be complete by the end of summer, that timeframe had now moved to the middle of June, council parks, recreation and aquatics group manager Richard Saunders said.
Read more
● ODT: Tyre ramp proposed for safer access
Hope nature enters into the spirit. A good Autumn easterly storm might suggest doing it right and doing it quick might have been the best policy. Unless of course, they just don’t know.