The plan by council owned Ports of Auckland to create two 100 by 33 metre extensions at Bledisloe wharf covering 7590 square metres has drawn the ire of members of the Facebook protest group ‘Stop stealing our harbour’.
The port company told The New Zealand Herald that it plans to start construction next month and says it will need to reclaim 3ha of seabed between them over time.
It says it had an urgent need for more berth space to accommodate longer ships, and was committed to building the berth extensions.
“The extensions will be an incredibly useful asset to the city with minimal impact on the harbour.”
Today The Herald carried an advertisement today from the protest group contains an open letter to the port company signed by 110 Aucklanders.
It says: ”C’mon Ports of Auckland, stop stealing our harbour!”
The letter says the wharf extensions will destroy views from Queens Wharf that Aucklander’s paid $40 million for, and that the eventual reclamation will be for parking thousands of cars and stacks of containers.
“We are not against Ports of Auckland operating in the city, but we are against you grabbing more space, narrowing an already congested Waitemata Harbour and blocking connections,” says the letter.
It was signed by some prominent Aucklander’s including Lady Pippa Blake, Sir Graeme Henry, Neil Finn, Rob Fyfe and Sir Stephen Tindall, ahead of a protest to be carried out at 3.30pm on Sunday March 22 at Queens Wharf.
Well known rugby player and coach Bryan (BG) Williams was quoted in the The Herald business section this morning commenting that he did not like the idea of another 100m encroachment into the picturesque waterway particularly to park cars.
Yachting identity Chris Dickson told The Herald he signed the letter because he was born in Auckland and over the decades had seen the incremental creep of land steadily closing into Waitemata Harbour.
Dickson says he was not anti-progress or anti-reclamation, but the harbour had become too narrow and dangerous for small boats.
“Auckland harbour is not a motorway. It is not a roadway. It is not a cycleway.
“It is a waterway and enough is enough,” says Dickson, who has been sailing on the harbour for 45 years.
