Cultural Impact Assessments - to protect a dump

If you aren’t already required to file ‘Cultural Impact Assessments’ in your area, then don’t worry, it won’t be far away – what is born in the torrid bullshit of the Resource Management Act and fermented in the fetid dreams of Auckland planners eventually filters down (or up) to the planners of lesser (or greater) burgs across the country.

These ‘Cultural Impact Assessments,’ or CIAs—along with the approval of appropriate iwi (plural) --are required every time you propose a project anywhere near a site that appears in Auckland’s Proposed Unitary Plan as a purple blob.

There are a lot of blobs (and that only describes the planners):

The place is swarming with them.

Most of these sites are unverified, and even the 7 or so iwi to whom you will have to write pleading for your project to proceed will often know no more about a site than you did before you started your project.

Fortunately, Lee Short of Auckland’s Democracy Action is doing something about it…

As you know, Auckland Council never verified that the sites of value to mana whenua actually exist – so we owe a huge thanks to our volunteers that have been investigating.

So far our volunteers have photographed and documented 110 sites throughout Auckland.

What we thought we’d do is highlight some of the questionable sites the council wants to ‘protect’.

We have embedded our map of the sites we’ve catalogued to date on our website here, but as a taste of what we have found we will be highlighting sites on a weekly basis.

First Site of the Week
ID#205, East Tamaki

Our volunteer documents:

“The site is on top of the hill that is the former Greenmount municipal landfill that is being remediated by Auckland Council and will become a park with sweeping views. The area is a huge 54ha, bounded by Harris, Smales and Springs Rds. It was bequeathed by the late Mrs SJ Lushington, to be set aside for public recreation purposes. But Manukau City Council used it as a scoria quarry and then a dump instead. It was taken over by an entity of the former Auckland Regional Council. Dumping stopped in 2005. Remediation deposits of up to 1.5million cubic metres of fill are being laid to meet “a final contour level.”
    According to a council hearing report (under the RMA, dated July 23, 2014), it has two sites of Maori archaeological origin (sites 206 and 3056), being the former Matanginui Pa site, and a midden near the northern boundary. Judging by the enormous filling activities over decades, it seems unlikely there is any surviving physical signs or features of the pa.”

Remember however that thanks to the mana whenua provisions, any earthworks in proximity to a site of significance or value to mana whenua will now need to be checked off with iwi! (For more information click here)

Apparently the Council consider a rubbish dump worthy of protecting!

If you would like to join our team of volunteers, click here. We're also holding a working group meeting this Saturday for those who are wanting to become more involved in Democracy Action. For more information or to RSVP click here.

Lee Short
Chairman
Democracy Action
www.democracyaction.org.nz