Popular Auckland camp to be closed due to fear of flooding deaths

Friday, 26 October 2018

Piha Mill Camp is to be closed in the wake of an Auckland Council report.

A well-used camp at a West Auckland beach village has been shut down over flooding concerns.

Water tore through Piha Mill Camp twice this year due to heavy rainfall, causing it to be evacuated along with nearby residents.

Boyd Clark is director of charity One Big Adventure that runs the camp ground and said it had bookings through to 2022 and the need to close was disappointing.

However an Auckland Council report into the floods had found the land to be unsafe with 'the potential for a loss of life', he said.

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The creek on Glenesk Road in Piha rose rapidly as a flash flood tore through this year. About 100 people had to be temporarily evacuated.

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One Big Adventure director Boyd Clark said the closure of the camp was inevitable considering the findings of Council's report on the 2018 floods.

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The report's authors found some form of flooding in the area occurred annually, but the 2018 floods were more severe and included the evacuation of Piha Mill Camp and about 100 residents.

Water was reported at a depth of more than half a metre at the camp and its speed was too dangerous for wading.

Clark said that as far as the camp was concerned the report said it should be closed, from a health and safety perspective.

'All the buildings should be removed and the land allowed to revert back to their natural state.'

Cars lie across each other on Glenesk Road in Piha after a flash flood tore through in February.

One Big Adventure leased the land at the end of Glenesk Rd from Auckland Council and ran the camp facilities.

The council's head of community facilities, Kim O'Neill, said the decision to close was made by the camp ground operators.

'The council provided information relating to the flood assessment and the associated safety risks. The decision to close Piha Mill Camp was an operational decision made by the operator, in light of the information provided.'

Clark said the camp was used for all types of people including yoga events, church youth groups, family reunions and international groups.

It would try to find a way to reopen, he said.

'We have been involved since the 1980s ourselves, but there has been a facility there probably for the last 50 to 60 years.'

Hope of reopening depended on new infrastructure that included an early warning system to allow evacuation.

However, Clark accepted this may be difficult considering the permanent closure by the council appeared to be already decided.

'This camp ground is part of Auckland's cultural history, it's something we all share. It's a loss,' he said.

'There is also a lack of group-type facilities in the Auckland region. It makes it hard when they do close down because they are not likely to open again.'

The council's head of park services, Mark Bowater, said that while it was not obligated to provide camp facilities, they encouraged the activity across the region.

'While it is disappointing that use of the camp, as we know it, may not be able to continue, public safety is paramount,' Bowater said.

'It is important to note that the use of many of our parks has changed over time, but their history has not been forgotten, and management plan processes allow us to look at new ways of using parkland.'

The council purchased the land in 2007.