Whiti Te Rā o Reweti marae is pushing back against Auckland Council’s plan for a massive new cemetery in Waimauku.
Co-chair Luann Tapu is meeting with the council today as the proposed 25,000-plot site raises concerns over land rights.
Co-chair David Mercer says part of the land is Māori-owned, while a General landowner has taken the case to the Environment Court, so there is a community drive to protect their land rights.
“There’s a lot of gazettes going out for public works acquisitions, and this is one of them, but it’s quite significant, as I say, it’s the scale and the imposition, and we haven’t really got to the environmental impacts yet. It’s something, as I say, we’re still grappling with,” says Mercer.
David Mercer says the community is united against compulsory land acquisition and a flawed consultation process.
