The Mapua Waterfront

It would be hard to imagine, anywhere in NZ, an area of land which could be better described as ‘community owned’. The TDC acquired this orphan site in its severely degraded state – there was little choice. Much earlier, community members had fund-raised and donated for its protection over decades, including obtaining pro bono and subsidised legal services in attempts to save the area from further destruction, along with its birds and marine life. (Some of those working to control the damage being done by Fruit Chemicals Co even extended the mortgages on their own houses to pay legal and other costs.)

Local people – workers and neighbours – sacrificed their health and well-being in ways that were not always well understood by the public at the time. After the closure of the factory, members of the broader community campaigned for a ‘clean-up’, and taxpayers and ratepayers paid for this to be done. It was an incredible (even if the clean-up of such toxins would always be ‘partial’) victory for the whole community. I understand that a condition of the Government’s funding for the clean-up was that at least 40% of the FCC site would remain as public land, which led TDC, in consultation with the local community plan and design the waterfront park (still being developed subject to availability of funding). Despite its bumpy history and impaired state, this site is genuinely, unquestionably a community taonga.’

-Submission no 168