Sustainable Outcomes for Waikawa Swing Moorings
November 2008

A working party comprising the Marlborough Berth and Mooring Association (representing mooring applicants) and Port Marlborough has been working hard since April, under the Chairmanship of a senior resource management planner from Marlborough District Council, to come up with a solution that will accommodate all of the moorings and allow space for future expansion of the marina.

With the support of the Harbourmaster, the Working Group has looked at how other regions allocate and manage mooring space.  The Group has developed concepts around ‘Managed Mooring Areas’ within which moorings would be licensed, rather than individually requiring specific resource consents as at present.  The ambition is that such a system would be managed by the Harbourmaster, and that licences would be tradable – thus ensuring that the existing investments of mooring holders are respected. 

The Mooring Areas would be in fairly much the same area as the moorings presently lie, and would include space for any moorings that needed to be moved to provide for further marina development.  Moorings in deeper water would use more space-efficient mooring tackle, and there may need to be some minor relocation of a number of moorings.

A final round of consultation with mooring applicants, concluded earlier this month, showed a strong level of support for these concepts.  The Working Group is due to make its final report to the Resource Commissioner at the end of November.  We are confident that long-term, sustainable tenure for swing moorings in Waikawa Bay will soon be a reality.