Today at a meeting with various members of council we heard that still council seems unwilling to seriously look at reclamation between Taumanu Reserve and the Port of Onehunga. Again we are told that legislation prohibits this activity. This is not just because of the so called outstanding natural feature, but also due to the various legislative rules set out in things like the Resource Management Act, which is directly against reclamation, and so it should be; well to a point that is. Historically reclamation was done with little regard for the environment, primarily to support industrial, commercial and transport requirements, cutting of foreshores to the public, destroying habitats, damaging Eco-systems, with no thought to visual and aesthetic qualities, or cultural issues, and completed with unforeseen circumstances such as causing leaching into the harbours from contaminated fill, and increasing sedimentation. Examples include Gloucester Park, the Auckland Airport Land, Pikes Point refuse site, among others, and the legislation is most appropriate to prevent further occurrences of such reclamation from occurring again. The problem we face is that the legislation as intended is counterproductive when it comes to restorative reclamation that is for the purpose of creating "naturalised" coastlines, restoring lost bird habitats, returning access to the public, creating places to enjoy, restoring culture, rectifying contaminant leaching, and general improving the harbour and harbour's edge and revitalising the use of the harbour. These same laws that were created to protect our harbours are now working against sensible outcomes and effectively allowing the wrongs of the past to remain an ever blot on our landscape. Council has an opportunity to lead the charge here, address this anomaly and write the book so to speak on restorative reclamation, but still they seem to be using the rules as an excuse rather than taking a serious look at what is wrong with the rules and addressing these issues. If you take a look at the pictures above (from Auckland Council's GeoMaps), you will see how the coastline has been altered by the wrong kind of reclamation, the type of reclamation the rules are there to prevent. By 1940 Gloucester Park had already been filled in (it was a rubbish dump for many years), but apart from Gloucester Park the coastline is mostly natural in 1940. By 2011 you can see significant change, the coastal edge has been straightened and large chunks of land has been created for business and transport, and in doing so the public were cut off from the foreshores, areas that should have been held sacrosanct for public enjoyment and wildlife habitats. Instead these were turned into revenue generating areas. Consider just how much the industries have generated in rates to council and how much tax these industries have paid to the government, all made possible by reclamation. Isn’t it time council and government put some of that money back into creating a community asset to replace those stolen so many years ago? If you agree, please make a submission before 22nd March to the Environment Protection Authority and talk to friends, family, and work mates asking them to do the same, and sign our petition.