Call for trees as MPs debate point

The next round of the controversial Forrester Heights/Lookout Point saga will be heard in Parliament tomorrow.

The second reading of the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Land Empowering Bill, is set down for a second reading after it was cleared by the parliamentary select committee.

The Waitaki Concerned Citizens and Ratepayers Association is calling for the controversial Forrester Heights/Lookout Point land to be replanted in trees.

Chairman Warren Crawford said although the proposed sub-division had cleared the first round through the select committee who agreed last month as part of the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Land Empowering Bill, that the land was not a reserve, Mr Crawford said it should be planted in trees to stop erosion and for everyone to enjoy.

"If the land is subdivided and sold for sections, the Government should abolish Arbour Day," he said.

"The trees on the site were planted on Arbour Day, 1895 and it makes a mockery of that commemorative day."

A spokesperson for Te Runanganui O Waitaha me Maata Waka Inc. tumuaki (president) Stephen Bray, said Waitaha, who submitted to the select committee, strongly supported the Waitaki Concerned Citizens and Ratepayers Association and their warning of erosion on Forrester Heights/Lookout Point land.

"It is not only our historical knowledge of Ruaki O Tangaroa, or now known as Cape Wanbrow, but the information contained in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 33 (1), 427-485. 2003, Late-Pleistocene avifaunas from Cape Wanbrow, Otago, South Island, New Zealand Worthy, T.H.; Grant-Mackie, J.A," he said.

"We advise those who are undecided on Forrester Heights/Lookout Point to seek this report from their local library.

"It is available online at https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/4816."

Last month Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean said the process through which the status of the land had passed had been "protracted and searching", but the committee made its decision on the facts and evidence before it and not on anecdotes.

"The committee received very good submissions and took a lot of advice prior to confirming the endowment land status."

The select committee had also noted that Land Information New Zealand and the Department of Conservation had reviewed records and were satisfied that treating Lookout Point (Forrester Heights) as a reserve had been a "genuine mistake", resulting from legal uses of the word "reserve".