They cant stop access to the beach thanks to the people including myself who RAN and supported the coastal coalition and forced the Attorney general to insert the words that retained public access to all beaches into the Foreshore and seabed legislation.

But remember this. The govt gave the local iwi a 22 million handout,along with a few farms and a large amount of DOC land. A lot of that land as I understand it runs adjacent to the beach. So it essentially gave the local iwi the power to claim customary title. This is what they said in a past press release

"A lot of this coast is just cliffs," iwi spokesman Toro Waaka said yesterday. "We wouldn't block the coast for walkers or fishers." However, some vehicle access might be restricted because people had been using the tracks to dump rubbish or hoon around in cars or on motorbikes, Mr Waaka said.

I think the master plan as I understand it, is to put that stretch of beach into DOC hands. Put up barriers along the beach and allow only walking access. I warned you lot about this about a year ago. The aquisition of customary title wil only strengthen this goal. Of course local iwi will have a key to access the beach of course.

Hopefully it wont happen that way and we will be able to fish Mohaka as we always have but who knows. These are the ramifications of the coastal marine area bill that you were all warned about but no doubt did nothing to oppose it other than whinge.
The submission Chris has posted is also on my facebook page. Its 2 pages long and takes about 5 minutes to fill out. It tells the Govt who uses the beach and allows them to judge whether the beach has "substantial interuption" a key determinant in granting. customary title.I filled it out and sent it in, so did Yoey.

HAVE YOU???????