Navy's Takapuna Head to be sold

[Dave Homewood]

I just saw on 3 News that the land at Takapuna Head, currently occupied by the Royal New Zealand Navy and classified as a Reserve, is to be sold by the Government for $13.2 million to the local tribe Ngati Whatua, to settle another Treaty claim.

The historic Defence land on the clifftops at Takapuna overlooks Narrow Neck beach.

The reason why this land in particular is to be sold despite having been a Reserve since the 1990's and set down for future preservation for the entire community, is beacause 25% of Treaty claims are for tribes in the Auckland area but as they have already given away most of the Government assets in that region, this prime jewel now has to be used.

Chris Finlayson, the Treaty Settlement Minister said something like, "Not much land is free but this land is, as it's been occupied for a number of years by the Defence Department."

So this prick sees NZDF property as 'free land' that can solve his treaty claims issues. This shows the level of importance the current Government puts on Defence.

The report said once the Tribe has it, it is outright ownership without caviats, so they can sell it on to developers and it could all end up as high density housing.

[jonesy]

Preaching to the converted here Dave. News today in Tauranga is local tribes getting land and possibly up to 33mil cash.
Where the hell is this money coming from? must have skimmed it off the fund for health/policing/education..and dont forget defence!!

[pjw4118]

Pictures of the area are on the Navy Philomel/Fort Takapuna thread

[meo4]

Good luck trying relocate OTS ,TTS trade workshop accommodation the main Philly Base down the road is very limited on space and footprint is limited by resource consent in some areas. Guess you could shift alot of it up to Whangaparoa.

[strikemaster]

not even enough for an F-16. Piffle, tell them we want more for it.

[gunny]

I am beyond sadness if this goes ahead

[Dave Homewood]

I don't think there's any if about it. The Government has already quietly lifted the reserve status that was bestowed on it by Parliament in the 1990's. And the decision to sell it has happened.

[raymond]

If the local iwi want to sell the land for development it just goes to show how important the land is to them....

[gunny]

I retracted my reply to this discussion as i went too far, my appologies to those who read it but i am just so annoyed about this subject (fuming is an understatement) especially King Edward Barracks now a parking lot for how many years?, and how many men left there to never return!

[Dave Homewood]

I have just seen on Teletext that due to growing local anger over the inclusion of this land in the Treaty settlement, there is to be a public meeting this weekend so people can voice their vies and register their protest. However in Teletext fashion it fails to say where or when! But if you want to get out and have a say about it, find out and attend the meeting.

[fyl]

Good to see the meeting was well attended...
www.stuff.co.nz/national/6673729/Angry-residents-threaten-to-take-over-naval-base

Angry residents threaten to take over naval base
Furious Devenport residents are threatening to occupy a naval base in a move usually used by Maori to draw attention to disputed land.

The public stoush is over a 3.2 hectare chunk of Auckland land, valued at $30 million, promised to Ngati Whatua in a Deed of Settlement in November.

Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson fronted up to about 300 angry residents in Devonport yesterday in attempt to quell the rage.

These scenes of public anger could increase as the pace of Treaty deals speeds up. Five settlements were pushed through parliament on a single day last week.

The Devonport dispute was sparked after local councillors and residents raised fears the Crown was selling a prime piece of real estate to Maori illegally and without public consultation. Concerns also mounted that access to the waterfront would be cut.

However, the Crown insists it has every right to sell the land and public access will actually improve from the Treaty deal.

Yet these reassurances have failed to cool the anger brewing in the normally quiet seaside suburb of Devonport.

In an unlikely move, residents are threatening to occupy the Royal New Zealand Navy base.

In an editorial in the Devonport Flagstaff newspaper, the editor said "polite conversation" was not enough to keep the naval base land in public ownership.

"An occupation is the last and perhaps best resort," editor Rob Drent wrote.

Ngati Whatua spokesman Ngarimu Blair said there is a misconception the deal involves the coastal area, sports field and surrounding reserve.

"We're not buying that. We never were. We're only talking about the navy barracks, the sheds, carpark areas and building which we are purchasing and is set well back from the coast."

The RNZ Navy, which leases the land, will be offered a minimum lease of 15 years under the agreement.

Adjoining Takapuna Reserve and Narrow Neck Beach – totalling 11.9ha and covering the shoreline – remains in the public's possession and unaffected by the deal.

Plans are also under way to formalise a public walkway on the eastern strip of the base. Currently the navy can revoke access at three months' notice.

"We're the last people to restrict public access to great pieces of land on the harbour or river. We did the same thing for our land at Bastion Point," Blair said. "We're very sensitive to these issues."

The row surfaced this month when Devonport Board chairman Chris Darby raised alarm bells.
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"There's significant disquiet on this. It's been dropped on us ... without any engagement with Auckland Council," he said.

Maori interests have come before the concerns of Auckland, he said.

"What we have now is the strong interests of Aucklanders not being taken into account."

Darby said the legal argument boils down to a High Court decision in the late 1990s which kept the land protected from public sale.

However, Finlayson said they are within their legal rights to sell the land to Ngati Whatua.

In a letter to the community paper, Finlayson called on residents to remember how Maori suffered significant land losses in Auckland and this needs to be addressed. "There is no way the scale of redress to Ngati Whatua Orakei can be anything like what they lost."

Shortly after the Treaty was signed the Crown purchased 3000 acres of what is now downtown Auckland for 281. Within six months, it had on-sold 90 acres of that land for 24,500.

- © Fairfax NZ News

[obiwan27]

The key points I take from this article are:

Ngati Whatua spokesman Ngarimu Blair said there is a misconception the deal involves the coastal area, sports field and surrounding reserve.

"We're not buying that. We never were. We're only talking about the navy barracks, the sheds, carpark areas and building which we are purchasing and is set well back from the coast."

and

"Adjoining Takapuna Reserve and Narrow Neck Beach – totalling 11.9ha and covering the shoreline – remains in the public's possession and unaffected by the deal.

Plans are also under way to formalise a public walkway on the eastern strip of the base. Currently the navy can revoke access at three months' notice.

"We're the last people to restrict public access to great pieces of land on the harbour or river. We did the same thing for our land at Bastion Point," Blair said. "We're very sensitive to these issues."

can't say that I see any problem with that myself, it seems to be more that the other locals (non-Maori are upset that they haven't been consulted.

Also: "However, Finlayson said they are within their legal rights to sell the land to Ngati Whatua.

In a letter to the community paper, Finlayson called on residents to remember how Maori suffered significant land losses in Auckland and this needs to be addressed. "There is no way the scale of redress to Ngati Whatua Orakei can be anything like what they lost."

Fair point.

[gebbw]

I cannot help but think that this issue has nothing to do with the public. The land is owned by the crown. They are the owners and can decide what happens to it. Just like any other legal land owner can.

I agree that there is certainly a public interest. But I'd also wonder when has public interest ever stopped land owners from making unpopular decisions?

The issue is between the crown and the iwi. Crown land is owned by the crown - not the government. As we all know. Governments come and go. The crown does not.

[Dave Homewood]

My issue with this issue is not so much what happens to that piece of land, but two very nasty precedents it sets.
1) Land that has had official reserve status placed on it by an Act of Parliament is now no longer safe as they have lifted such protection without any consultation or consideration to those who it is preserved for - the public

2) This idiot Finlayson's statement that not much land is free in Auckland for Treaty settlements now but this land is, as it's been "occupied for a number of years by the Defence Department." Think about it, if the public tolerates this then Whenuapai will be next. No question about it.

The systematic use of taking Defence land to solve all the Treaty problems is like a cancer on the NZDF. They have no say, and continue to lose their longheld territory due to a whole different Government department's needs, and no thought into what the NZDF might need that land for right now and in the future.