Keith Melville

Whakatāne District Council’s apparent reluctance to let volunteers repair the walkway between Ōhope and Ōtarawairere Bay underscores perfectly the out-of-touch and risk-averse sickness that afflicts the organisation.

It would seemingly rather wrap the repair plan in layer upon layer of cotton wool at enormous cost by engaging consultants and contractors to examine and plan every microscopic detail of the project, than trust volunteers to do the job at a fraction of the cost.

The council’s mentality these days is a far cry from the co-operative community spirit it encouraged in the 1970s and early 1980s, when volunteers were valued and they worked together with service and sport clubs and the council to develop the facilities at Rex Morpeth Park, including rebuilding and expanding the district’s War Memorial Centre to include the sports stadium and the Little Theatre. These days, the council clearly fears volunteers might not be able to work safely, and it could be lumbered with wrath and litigation from WorkSafe NZ if things go wrong.

Its risk-averse mentality may well have been influenced by the White Island tragedy and other disasters such as Cave Creek. That mindset appears to be an excuse for dithering and doing nothing.

White Island should have taught us some important lessons – the value of volunteers, of their courage to reject official advice, and their ability to make a split-second decision in a disaster when lives are at stake.

Instead, we have been anaesthetised and discouraged by a system that punishes risk-taking and rewards only those with the right professional qualifications and the right job.

As a consequence, we devalue and ignore many of our people who want to participate but are prevented from doing so by a pervasive arrogance. That amounts to spraying solvent on the glue of our society.

The walkway links Whakatāne and Ōhope with a coastal and an inland route and is nationally famous for its huge diversity of landscapes, vegetation, birdlife and one of the earliest pa sites in New Zealand.

As someone who played a role in establishing the inland part of the walkway, I find it incredibly sad to see the dead hand of bureaucracy wreck a national treasure.

Sure, there are insurance and liability issues at the heart of the council’s reluctance to engage volunteers.

Maybe Mayor Nandor Tanczos, could take up those issues with Local Government New Zealand and pitch for some changes to our insurance laws, which are probably at the heart of the council’s reticence.

Perhaps that would produce better ratepayer value for his time than the proposal promised in his election campaign to champion returning the GST portion of our rates bills to council coffers.

Trying to persuade the Government to forego a large portion of its tax revenue is pure futility in my view.

The West End Ōhope walkway connection to Ōtarawairere Bay has now been closed for four years due to land stability issues and was the subject of a meeting last week between the council and people supporting an offer by volunteers to rebuild the track.

One of the volunteer leaders, Austin Oliver, is an experienced forestry harvesting contractor, and would have had more experience than most in workplace safety.

The Beacon reported on Friday the council’s community experience general manager, Alexandra Pickles, as saying the council had not ruled out involving volunteers in the work.

That comment offers some hope but, in the meantime, a key part of the walkway, a much-valued community experience that is not being well managed, remains off limits.