Mangapurua to stay closed: DoC

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 425, 25 February 1992, Page 5

Mangapurua to stay closed: DoC

Mangapurura Valley Road is closed and will stay closed, and the Department of Conservation is unlikely to respond to calls to open the issue for public submissions. John Lythgoe, Department of Conservation Whanganui field centre manager, said this was because the public consultation process had been gone through. He was responding to the call by the Waimarino Community Board to call for public submissions on the road closure, after irregularities in the road closure legal process. Mr Lythgoe said the proposal to clos6 the road at Kaiwhakauka Junction, which is about a kilometre from the Mangapurua Trig, was advertised in the Whanganui National Park management plan in 1989, and no objections had been received at the time. Board member Winston Oliver said at the WCB meeting that people had waited for the official road closure notices to make submissions, but that it had never been advertised. Mr Lythgoe said the reason the road was closed to horses and motorbikes was "very sound" - that it was to prevent damage to the track. Mr Oliver had told the WCB that users would be happy if the road were closed in the Mangapurua Valley, so that they could leave bikes and horses there rather than have to climb back to the trig.