3 May, 2025

Property owners want creek widened

Money should be spent on increasing Wairau Creek capacity, say two disillusioned property owners who fear initial flood-mitigation plans won’t tackle the main issues for Milford.
“The golf course [detention plan] won’t solve the problem,” Stratford Ave resident, Bob Lang, a former land surveyor and town planner, told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board last month. Council should do more to clear waterways, he said.
Co-submitter to the board’s public forum and an owner of a rental property on the same side street off Shakespeare Rd, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis of Takapuna, said money would be better spent widening the creek and addressing issues around the Alma Rd and East Coast Rd bridges for a better passage of water out to the estuary. Debris screens were less than useless, he said, and should be designed to be removable for floods not stay as chokepoints.
Board chair Mel Powell agreed more should be done to clear waterways and said the board shared frustration at slow progress
The men showed photographs from the 2023 floods and spoke of the impact on Stratford Ave residents. Water pooling was indicative of some fixable localised problems elsewhere, said Belgiorno-Nettis, suggesting levels rose up through drains because water could not get to the estuary fast enough.
Lang said life on the street of 40-odd homes and 30 pensioner units had been badly impacted. Uncertainty still plagued some residents over buyouts and yet three multi-unit developments were under way.
“Many have to look at moving away with little chance of finding equivalent dwellings in Milford.”

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