Future of Iconic Whakatāne Walkway up for Community Proposals

Whakatāne District Council has officially opened a tender seeking community-led solutions to restore or reroute the Ngā Tapuwae o Toi Walkway, but strict requirements are raising community concerns.

Four years after first closing, Whakatāne District Council has opened a request for community proposals for the Ngā Tapuwae o Toi Walkway. 

The council are inviting plans to repair and reinstate the existing track, or develop alternative routes, without reliance on Council funding.

Mayor Nándor Tánczos said the area is one of the first places of human inhabitation in Aotearoa, making it a very sensitive and restricted envrionment to work in.   

"It's got wāhi tapu, it's got sites of ancient occupation, it's very sensitive, it's slip-prone as well, and Heritage New Zealand has very restrictive rules around what you can do there."

"Even just moving dirt from one part to another, you need an authority to do that."

Proposals will need to include iwi engagement, finanical planning, legal advice, archaelogical authority planning, engineering designs, and health and safety plans. 

"Once those proposals come in, a report will go to the Projects and Services Committee and we'll be able to agree the next steps and then work can commence."

Proposals need to be submitted through the Government Electronic Tenders System by May 22. 

Tánczos acknowledged this process might be slower than what the community would like, "but council is very bound by a whole lot of rules outside of our control."

He remains hopeful there will be a positive outcome, which could pave the way for other community proposals as rates capping presssures increase.  

"Our ability to fund things like this is going to be really limited in the future and so there's a whole lot of things that our community loves and wants which we're probably only going to be able to do if we get community groups involved."

One group of volunteers who have been organising design works for months said the tender is progress, but organsier Angus Robson said the level of administrative requirements is much larger than initially anticipated. 

Robson said the group found the tender complicated for what their proposal involves. 

"Based on what we can see from the way governments normally run tenders, the complexity of it and the demands of it are what you would get with a project worth $9 million or more."

The tender requires the volunteer group to hold public liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance for the track, which would usually fall onto track designers, Robson said.

"Then the professional liability and indemnity would normally fall back on the designer, and so to get us to have full-blown, long-term professional indemnity and liability seems to be, A, a huge cost, B, a big hassle, and C, way over-cooking what's needed," Robson alleged.

"Of course, some rules and regulations are essential and we felt like we were already meeting those, so it's the additional burden that we struggle with."

He said needing indemnity insurance is understandable, but the group anticipates having to maintain and repair the track as future slips are part of the landscape. 

To date, the group has completed health and safety work, expects professional track designs to be complete in the coming days, and is working though any concerns and questions from local hapū. 

On May 22nd, Robson said the group will submit the proposal, even if some of the criteria is not met in the hopes the council will consider it. 

Before official work begins on the track, Tánczos said people still need to adhere to rules in place at the track at West End. 

He warns that there are sheer cliff face sections along the path that are impassable, and after heavy periods of rain, the risk of new slips forming is great. 

"People do need to understand they're putting themselves at risk if they're walking through."

"We're really relying on people's good decision making and being mindful of the risk and not doing dumb stuff."

Robson said when visiting the site to complete design assessments, he saw the extent of repairs from members of the public. 

At the biggest slip site, members of the public have uncovered the old track which the volunteer group had anticipated having to rebuild. 

"The original track wasn't actually taken away, it was covered over."

"You can see the old boards that were used to hold up the handrails." 

He said the group will propose building steps and a handrail over the original track.

At the second large slip site near the lookout, he said a bridge would liekly be required to span a large exposed section.