Meeting tonight about Toi walking track proposal

West End Walkway slip. Photo: Supplied

A track building expert will speak at a meeting tonight about a volunteer run proposal to reopen Ōhope Beach’s West End walkway.

The Council meeting about the proposal left no room for questions says proposal organiser Angus Robonson.

"So we thought it would be really good for those people to, you know, ask their questions. It's quite specific what we're trying to do, you know, getting the track open, which means that, you know, it's a little bit technical, it's a little bit health and safety. All stuff that either ourselves or people we're associated with do all the time," he says.

The Council and some members of the public had concerns over logistics and safety for using volunteers, which he says should not be a concern.

"What we're trying to do happens every day with DOC and their volunteers to get more done in less time for more money," he says.

A guest speaker will be at the meeting who specialises in track building with volunteers to help ease some concern. "We are getting a guest speaker along who's an expert in track building from the area, worked for a long time alongside Doc and just knows how to manage volunteers working on this sort of thing and is happy to give us his time and a bit of insight."

What the proposal puts forward is "pretty reasonable and realistic," he says.

People wanting to volunteer that have been in touch with Robonson and co-orgainiser Austin Oliver are engineers or skills tradespeople Robonson says.

"The people of the Whakatāne district are amazing. There are a lot of outdoor people, there are a lot of people who are happy to give of their time. They're generous, they are clever, they're often very skilled and knowledgeable. And they're also frustrated at the length of time that this beautiful thing's been held away from us," he says.

However director of the annual Toi’s challenge race William Doney supports the Councils' caution over volunteer involvement. The race, which has used a different route for the past four years, has faced challenges to keep runners returning. He would love to see the track open again for the next Toi Challenge race on November 15th next year, but he has concerns over volunteers opening the track.

"Yeah, our concerns is the health and safety for volunteers and that there, I know it's not easy to get consent, and I know for the last four years we've been trying to get this course opened again, and so we know where the District Council are coming from, because for us we've got to cover ourselves for health and safety and it's not easy," he says.

Doney himself previously volunteered on the walkway but, he says times have changed.

"When I was organising the event, when I was actually a young fella, we used to walk around there and actually take stuff in for that track, and it'd be good to see that happen again, but I can understand where the red tape is," he says. He will be attending tonight's meeting to understand the current proposal more.

Despite criticism, Whakatāne Mayor Nandor Tanczos says he expects caution around decision making that could put people in danger. "Our staff have had some criticism, but I wanna be really clear that I expect the staff to be cautious when it comes to this kind of thing because you potentially put lives at risk. It's a slip-prone slope, and both in terms of the work to reinstate it, but also the ongoing maintenance," he says. Slips are getting worse due to climate change and this makes getting the engineering reports peer reviewed important he emphasised. Peer reviewed engineer reports are expected in February, and once those arrive, he says the Council "need to look at, are there other options as well? So we need good information before making any decisions."

His concerns are the health and safety of volunteers doing the work, and not against volunteer work as a whole.

"I want to be really clear that the Council is totally open to volunteers doing the work. And in fact, we have volunteers working on a number of our projects," he says. The biggest concern for the Council is that volunteers need to "be able to assure us that they can meet the health and safety standards. It's really that simple. And if they can, then they can tender for the work, and if they can do it at a lower price because they're using volunteers, then that's wonderful. We all win from that."

Robonson encourages anyone interested in volunteering or learning more to come to the meeting at Ōhope community hall tonight at 6 pm.