Storm-battered Auckland beach fence potential 'disaster'

A North Auckland beach’s fence is a “disaster waiting to happen” after waiting about 12 months for repairs.

Long Bay Beach on the North Shore has had a fence consisting of posts dug into the sand connected by rope to protect the sand dunes.

However, after many storms, local Peter Giles has seen the fence destroyed multiple times.

“When we get a storm, the posts get ripped out of the ground and then they’re lying all over the beach.

“If you go down there in a big tide, you got these posts stuck onto rope that are just swinging around in the waves.”

Giles says it took Auckland Council a considerable amount of time to repair the fencing, but even fixed it isn’t safe.

“Now they’ve tried to repair it, or they’ve replaced all their posts that were there, but for the last year some of the old posts have been lying around there, so they get caught in a big storm again.”

The council says it tries to respond as quickly as it can when this occurs.  Jason Maguiness stated that the council try to respond as quickly as they can to these problems.

“Following storms or large surf surges there is always a risk on the beach - hazards such as tree fall, debris or uncut fencing can be deposited on the beach," said Jason Maguiness, Auckland Council's northern principal ranger of regional operations.

“Our team monitor for these risks following storms or large surf surge to ensure any safety issues are resolved as soon as possible.”

Maguiness also says the rope and post fencing may be safer for the overall environment.

“One advantage of the post and rope fencing is that they are all connected and anchored further up the beach, if a section is dislodged it is held to the beach and does not float into the surf or to sea creating a marine hazard.”

The council have increased the length of the fence posts they use for this fencing to 2.7 metres, which he says should “resist undercutting in greater storm surges”.

Giles isn’t convinced that these new post lengths will help much in the end.

“Even the quality of the work that’s been done with these new posts is not that great, could’ve been done a lot better.

“It just creates a health and safety hazard.”