Katikati Boat Club’s ongoing efforts to revive the town’s connection with its historical waterfront has suffered a setback, with plans for a new wharf at the Uretara landing being put  on the back burner.

In its 2018-2028 Draft Long Term Plan, council deferred the project until 2024, subject to the public consultation process.

This followed a recommendation from the Katikati Community Board that the project should be put off.

The board argued it made no sense to build a jetty without navigable water, and in November 2017 moved to withdraw the project from the Long Term Plan.

It was dredged in January 2018, just days before the boating club’s dredging consent expired.

The wharf replacement project was supposed to start in 2010, but foundered because tenders received were between $100,000 and $180,000, exceeding the budget.

No external funding was obtained, so the project was rescheduled to 2018/19 with a budget of $130,000 - also considered insufficient to meet the 2010 design, which is now estimated at $150,000.

Historical entryThe bend in the Uretara stream is the historical entry to Katikati.

Some of the area’s first settlers were dropped off there, and the landing at Katikati was in regular use up until the 1950s.

Until road and rail became established, pre-truck freight carriers on the New Zealand coast were regular callers and a fertiliser barge was also seen.

“The whole town is there because the river came into the middle of it,” says Katikati Boating Club member Don Wallis.

“The council has lost its focus completely.

They have just walked away from the river and they are not putting any resources into it.

”The new wharf would be four times the length of the existing structure, which would have helped attract more boats, says Don.

“That would have made a hell of a difference, just lovely.

“We do need to keep it open and the council do need to come to the ball with a new jetty.

They drew up plans for a new jetty, and it cost them a lot of money.

They got all the resource consents but the resource consents expired last November.

“They wouldn’t extend them.

They said that wasn’t their business any more.

The jetty should be boat club business and they didn’t see it as their business to make a new ramp, a new jetty or to keep the silt out of the river.

”Lack of berthsThanks to a grant from regional council, the boating club has completed dredging the river in front of the jetty and boat ramp to enable visiting boats to use the facilities at all tides.

“The channel’s well marked but the biggest problem is a place to sit them when they’re here,” says Don.

“We have always had problems with the wharf silting up ever since they built the rock wall beside it.

That would have been 10 years ago I suppose.

“Consents last 17 years, but in that time you are probably only dredging it three times at the maximum.

So we don’t have the money for another resource consent, but in seven years’ time we will worry about that then.

“It’s seven years since we have done it anyway, so if we get another seven years we will be fine.

”Water levels have always been the same, says Don.

The landing has always been tidal.

“People keep saying it needs dredging out, that it’s not like the old days.

But when I first came to Katikati 45 years ago, there were 13 boats in the river, moored up along the side.

”The channel itself, from the landing to the harbour, has never silted up says Don.

They have, at different stages, cleaned out sections of it, but within a few months it fills back up to its normal level.

“It’s only ever been a high tide wharf,” says Don, “and even when the settlers first had the shops there they would only have come up on the high tide.

“The channel draft is about 1.

5m at high tide at its shallowest point, so I recommend people not to come up unless they’ve got anything more than a metre draft.

That covers most boats.

There’s a lot that will fit into that.

“They can use the channel about two hours before high tide and for about four hours after it.

“I’m really, really keen to get that river used by a lot more people.

”If council doesn’t help with the wharf, the boat club is considering talking to the owners of a couple of ‘historic’ landing stages further down the riverbank.

A resource consent is not required for the repair of historic structures, says Don.

“We’ve still got a couple of the old jetties there which we are trying to interest people in using.

It’s a hell of a cheap place to moor instead of a marina.

”Western Bay of Plenty District Council reserves and facilities manager, Peter Watson, says the existing design/construction drawings will be used for a new consent in the event that funding is provided through the 2024 LTP.

The consents previously obtained and since expired for the Uretara Jetty Project will need to be reapplied for, which may be undertaken in 2018/19, subject to Long Term Plan consideration.

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Don Wallis wants to see more boats using the Katikati landing.