September 09, 2022
Te Araroa barge projects battles for support
A group which wants to use barges to move the coming wall of wood off the East Coast says more work is needed to win wider community support for the proposal.
Te Araroa Barge Facility Working Group held a hui at Hinerupe Marae on Saturday to update Tairawhiti residents on progress towards getting the engineering, environmental and social impact reports needed for the funding and resource consent processes.
Opponents held a hikoi through the town on their way to the hui.
Working group secretary Tiwana Tibble says while some opponents say they don’t want the jobs and money the facility will bring, others just want assurances on any potential environmental damage.
“Change is a challenge. We accept that and we’ve got to somehow work along with all our whanau, not just those – the major land interest involved here, the Te Rimu Trust, has an interest in getting a better outcome from their land. Many of us have interests in logs through our various land blocks so we’re interested in getting better returns for our logs. But everyone doesn’t see everything exactly the same. We accept that and we’ve got to try to work better on this,” he says.
The hui heard from Whakatohea Maori Trust Board about the modifications being made to its harbour to support its mussel-farming operation, and from Rekohu-Chatham Islands where an old wooden pier has been replaced with a rock wall.