Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Wellington Regional Strategy.
The Guardians of Pauatahanui Inlet is an incorporated society, with about 190 financial members.
Our interest in the Wellington Regional Strategy is solely with its potential for adverse impact on the Inlet. We want to be certain that those responsible for planning and implementing the Strategy fully appreciate the value of the Inlet to the local and regional population and thus include in their plans measures to ensure that adverse potential is not realised.
The Guardians were set up in 1991 to promote the recognition of the ecological, historic, recreational and cultural values of the Pauatahanui Inlet. Guardians have conducted regular cockle surveys over more than a decade, made submissions on behalf of the Inlet in planning processes, produced an education kit for use in schools, run a number of educational and promotional activities and operate a monitoring programme that reports to Greater Wellington Regional Council on the health of the streams that feed the Inlet. Guardians were also instrumental in initiating, promoting and supporting the development of the Pauatahanui Inlet Action Plan. This plan is endorsed by the Guardians and there is a commitment to implement it (and the subsequent Pauatahanui Inlet Restoration Plan) from Porirua City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council.
Pauatahanui Inlet is identified in the Regional Coastal plan as a significant coastal environment and is registered as a site of National Significance in the Sites of Special Wildlife Interest database. It is a special place. Not only is it of value to society in terms of its wildlife, but also for its importance as a place for recreation and relaxation. It ranks high in the attributes needed to sustain the ‘quality of life’ that the region affords its population.
We appreciate, and are grateful, that the Strategy acknowledges this and recognises that (page 42) “pressures for development .. [in the Pauatahanui Change Area] .. could undermine the region’s quality of life objectives, especially given the ecological importance of the Pauatahanui Inlet”. But we are concerned that by stressing its ecological value you either do not understand the other values of the Inlet, or do not consider how important they are to the local and regional population.
The Inlet itself is an important recreational venue for sailing, water skiing, jet skiing and surfboarding. Its edge is well used by cyclists, runners and walkers. Forest and parkland owned by Greater Wellington in the catchment offer facilities for walking, mountain biking, horse riding and motor cross and 4-wheel drive activity. But it is equally important to realise that its value for recreation and relaxation lies not only in or on the water or at the edges of the Inlet or in its hinterland, but in the fact that these activities take place in an area of outstanding scenic quality. The Inlet and its catchment hills are one entity and the aesthetic value of the whole is as important to our quality of life as any of the activities that it supports. Just sitting and viewing, especially to the north and east, is a powerful relaxant and antidote to the daily pressures of life. People choose to live here, in both urban and rural situations, because of this total effect.
Growth and development obviously lead to a demand for the conversion of land to a ‘built environment’ for housing, commercial activity, roading and other infrastructure. The Inlet water body is highly vulnerable to the pollution and stormwater drainage pressures generated by this conversion, and already is declining in water quality and biodiversity through that which now exists. And there are prominent examples of visual pollution caused by inappropriate building activity and less than well planned urban design.
The Guardians are not, and never have been, anti-development. We are, and always have been, against development that is not planned to avoid potential adverse effects on the Inlet. In the past our concern has mostly been with effects on the water of the Inlet and preventing avoidable discharge of sediment, untreated stormwater and road runoff on the Inlet. The sustainable growth that your Strategy seeks to promote introduces a need to be wary of adverse impacts on the visual and aesthetic values of the Inlet and its catchment.
We hope that the issues we raise in this submission are in fact well known and appreciated by you. If they are, then we would welcome an effort by you to stress them more strongly than is done in the current Strategy document and ensure that they are firmly embedded in the minds – and hearts – of the people who will plan and implement the Strategy.
John Wells
Chairperson
