Six months after eviction day, one man remains in Matatā's red zone
Thursday, 30 September 2021
Six months on from eviction day, one man still refuses to budge from Matatā’s red zone.
March 31 marked the end of the Bay of Plenty settlement’s controversial managed retreat process, forcing residents out of the path of a potential debris flow.
A nationally unprecedented rule change under the Resource Management Act (RMA) snuffed out the existing land use rights of anyone remaining, making them squatters on their own land.
When the deadline arrived, everyone but Greg Fahey had accepted the buyout offer.
**READ MORE:
* The last resident of Matatā's red zone today becomes an illegal squatter on his own land
* The last man standing against Matatā's managed retreat
* Moving day at Matatā - the end of one family's fight against managed retreat
* Mismanaged retreat? The life-limiting limbo of Matatā's red zone
**
Six months on, he’s still living in a shipping container on his section 200m from the golden coast. But now he’s surrounded by a whole lot of nothing.
The path to the beach passes through the vacant section where Marilyn and Rob Pearce lived with their grandson and great-grandson. In front was Marilyn’s sister’s house and to the left, her brother’s two rentals.
She was so upset to be forced off that land trod by six generations of family footprints, that ambulances replaced the furniture truck on moving day.
“Walking back through those sections, there's a real eerie feeling,” Fahey says. “The peace that was down there is not there any more.”
The plan change was the last chapter in a years-long and fiercely contested managed retreat process.
Following a 2005 debris flow which took out multiple homes, Whakatāne District Council promised to build a barrier, and residents built back. But when that plan failed, in 2012, thirty-four property owners were left unable to build, borrow or sell, after their homes and sections were red-zoned as too dangerous to live in.
With his wife Pauline in dementia care in Rotorua, Fahey wants to get on with his life. But he refuses to move without fair value for his section, plus compensation.
“It's really draining … What is 16 years of how I've been treated worth? If a parliamentarian was going through a percentage of the stress I've been going through, they'd be getting megabucks.”
He also wants legal accountability for what he believes was an unjust process. The residents argued the managed retreat buyout was not “voluntary”, as they were threatened with Public Works Act acquisition if they refused.
Fahey is negotiating with a council representative, but has been unable to reach an agreement. There had been no threats yet to send in the bulldozers.
“They know if they did, the whole of New Zealand would be watching the outcome. That would backfire on them so big it wouldn't be funny.”
The only other remaining red zone residents are long-time managed retreat opponents Rachel and Rick Whalley and Rick’s 79-year-old mum Pam. They got dispensation to stay until March next year.
Rachel said while they had signed a purchase deal with the council and bought a new house 15 minutes inland at Rotomā, the family remained unhappy with the process. They wanted Pam to leave on her terms – either when she was ready, or in a box.
Only three of the 16 evicted families had remained in the Matatā area, Rachel said.
“People are still angry and still hurt and still feel aggrieved about what's happened, and feel that they have been denied justice.
“We will never forgive them for how they have totally trampled on our mana … You cannot do that to communities and it should never happen to anybody else.”
Bay of Plenty Regional Council – which is responsible for enforcing the plan change – said it was still engaging with the last red zone resident, but had yet to agree a timeframe for departure.
“We are hopeful this may be resolved in the next few weeks.”
The Matatā managed retreat process was being closely watched by other councils and researchers, as a potential template for dealing with climate change threats.
However, any precedent could be overridden by the government’s planned Climate Change Adaptation Act. Due in 2022, that law is likely to include a specific process for managed retreat.