Michael O'Neill: Mt Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association ahead of meeting to discuss Mt Maunganui's future

Hopes some relief for businesses will be on the cards in a public meeting to discuss the future of Mount Maunganui this evening.

Mauao has been closed to the public ever since a landslide killed six holiday-makers almost 100 days ago.

The Mt Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association expects discussions tonight about allowing one route to the top of the mount.

President Michael O'Neill says businesses rely on the patronage of people using the mount.

He explained the same goes for people using the campground, hot pools, and boat ramp - all of which are closed. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now to the Mount Mount Longanui Todung. There is a
big meeting in Totunger tonight that will give residents a
clearer picture on when the mount will reopen again. The
Mount's obviously been closed almost one hundred days since the
deadly lan landslip. Michael O'Neill is the president of the
Mount Mongonui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association. Hi Michael, Hi,
is this really, honestly the first community meeting that you've

(00:22):
had in one hundred days?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, they had, they had one just for the Business
House Association last week. But yeah, it's the first time
we've had any sort of real feedback from council in
regard to reopening the.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Mouth, right, Okay, what are you expecting to hear?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, I'm not that optimistic yet. See, I'm expecting to
hear there's there's been quite a lot of Facebook feedback
coming through. EBU related messages are basically saying that they
think the mount should have arrest, that it needs to recover.

(00:58):
We but get its mon whereas the regular users are saying, well, hey,
this is part of our lifestyle, this is part of
why we live in this area. The mounts is the
heart and soul of why we live here. Can me
not get back to to to using our treasure? And
so we've got two fields. One they want to see

(01:20):
their rest and the others that want to to get
it back to what it's been and start using it again. Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
And if we are talking about a rest, we are
talking about the thing being shut down? What completely even
to people walking up there?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Absolutely yep, okay, no, absolutely no, no, why not done? Well,
it's a it's a fundamental asset to the mount. A
lot of a lot of the business houses rely on
the patronage from those that use them mount, those that
go up for their walk on the weekend and then
come back into town and buy their buy their lunches

(01:56):
and their coffees and the sort of it. In the
campground the same, the hot pools the same, the boat
rant the same, and all those things in our shutdown
and locals can't use them, so they're not bothering to come.
So businesses are suffering, some of them extremely. Okay.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
So you are expecting to find out what an answer
one way or the other at this meeting. Are you
going to find out where the thing is open or shut?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
No? Not that optimistic, but I'm predicting that there will
be some talk about opening up the one route to
the top and also possibly some progress on the hot pools.
That's the expectations I'm going on with. The last time
this happened, the cyclone Gabriel and the base track was

(02:46):
shut down judoized slip. It took counsel two years to
come up with a plan to reopen it at a
cost of between five and six million dollars. One of
the members of our associations next engineer, came up with
a plan that steering out that they actually used putting
a bridge in and he estimated would have cost three

(03:08):
hundred and fifty thousand. At the end of the day,
it cost eight hundred and fifty thousand, but it was
a heck of a saving from what council were predicting
what need to spend. So local knowledge is actually there's
some very wise people out in their community that are
retired here and they've got an abundance of skills that
they're happy to share with their community and with council.

(03:29):
And you know, councilor should really take the opportunity to
listen to what we want and engage with us and
they're not doing that.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, Michael listened. Best of luck with it. Good luck.
That's Michael O'Neil, the president of the Mountmong and We
Ratepays Residents and Retailers Association. For more from Hither Duplessy
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