Green MP backs Miramar occupation waateanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from waateanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Report from RNZ by Harry Lock
Occupiers of a proposed housing site on the Miramar Peninsula are braving Wellington’s winter weather, and say they will stay there as long as it takes.
Current propositions are for the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust (PNBST) to purchase the land and work with the Ministry for Housing and Urban Development to build a 300-home village.
But the occupiers are concerned any such development would see the land “commercialised”, when they want to see any development designed and retained for Māori.
Surveyors were spotted at the site as far back as October, but activity has ramped over the past week as engineers started drilling into the ground.
The 11.7-hectare site sits above Wellington Harbour on the Miramar Peninsula. (File photo) Puketapu said a couple of iwi members had set up camp at the site on Thursday night, with more expected to arrive over the next few days. They will set up camp on the paddocks, surrounding the prison site, where exploratory drilling recently began. Under the joint venture agreement, Taranaki Whānui has first rights to the land, which is owned by the Defence Force and the Department of Corrections, and includes the old Mt Crawford Prison. There are several sites of significance surrounding the 1920s prison, including a number of pā sites.
Fears that Wellington could see a repeat of the Shelly Bay debacle, at the former Mount Crawford Prison site - 08-Jul-2021 nzcity.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nzcity.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.