Piha Ratepayers & Residents Assn. submitted on the plan as did many of you here in Piha. You will be pleased to know that your messages and we have been been told that, as a result, Council has recognised that they under estimated the community concern and has appointed a specialist team to consider the feedback. Well done Piha. The following letter from Council has been sent to all submitters.
Kia Ora,
Thank you for providing feedback on The Gap Draft Concept Plan, your input is valued by the project team.
We had a total of 75 individual responses to the questionnaire and 6 separate group submissions.
78% of respondents to the questionnaire live at Piha and it was great to see locals having a say.
The following results and themes are from the questionnaires only, feedback from group submissions will be considered separately as they include more detailed information.
- 86% agreed with developing tracks linking the Hillary Trail between the Mercer Bay Loop Track and Tasman Lookout Track, 8% disagreed and 6% didn’t know/neutral
- 79% agreed with developing a loop track incorporating Lovett Stream and the Tennis Courts, 17% disagreed and 4% didn’t know/neutral
- 56% agreed with the position of the viewing locations shown in the draft concept plan, 22% disagreed and 22% didn’t know/neutral
- 63% support on-going maintenance of the Herb field, 28% do not support on-going maintenance and 9% didn’t know/neutral
- 52% preferred option 2 as a location for a boardwalk, 28% preferred option 1 and 20% felt there should not be any boardwalks
There were some clear themes that came through on the feedback;
- Ecological values; regeneration/planting, pest and weed control are important
- The wilderness feel of the area should be retained. Keep signage and infrastructure to a minimum and don’t over-engineer tracks and safety barriers to ensure minimal visual impact on the landscape
- There is concern about potential car parking issues
- The fire risk needs to be reduced where possible
- There are differing opinions on whether formed tracks and boardwalks are a good idea or not. Some felt that formed tracks/boardwalks would keep people from creating informal tracks while others thought the visual and environmental impacts would be too great.
We are now in the process of evaluating the group submissions and we will be in contact again soon to inform you of the process for further developing the plan.
Nga mihi,
The Gap Concept Plan team