Castlecliff Coastal Management Options Technical Report
- Author
- Ed Atkin, Greg Jenks, Shaw Mead
- Editor
- eCoast
- Year
- 2017
- Publisher / Organisation
- Whanganui District Council
- Pages
- 59
- Keywords
- Castlcliff, sand, Rangiora Street, access, Horizons
- Summary
- Approximately 300m of beach/dune area has been traditionally “scraped” by plant machinery for ~15 years or more. Driftwood has been relocated further south along the beach and sand has been deposited, under consent from Horizons Regional Council, in to the adjacent surf zone. These maintenance operations are to allow access and a user-friendly beachgoer environment. The ongoing maintenance cost to do this is in the order of $40,000 to $60,000 per annum. Overtopping of the concrete wall on the seaward edge of the car park is known to occur during storm events (Shand and Grant, 2014). During these high energy events, and consistently driven by the predominant onshore winds, sand fills the car park area, around the SLSC and Duncan Pavilion. The sand deposited inside the ca rpark is removed as part of the maintenance budget. Castlecliff Coastal Management There are multiple stakeholders and users of the area and regardless of its reserve status, there is uncontrolled access across the dune system. In their current form, the Castlecliff dunes are considered unstable. The instability is compounded by uncontrolled access across the dunes, including walking, motor biking and horse riding, which negatively impacts on the vegetation required to stabilise them (WDC, 2005; Barrett, 2016; pers. Comm.). The long-term vision of WDC is for the Castlecliff area, including the seafront, to develop into a user-friendly environment by retaining the amenity value of the existing infrastructure, whilst reinstating natural shoreline character.