An East Coast farmer is urging Gisborne District Council to uphold a “historic commitment” to transfer two significant Tolaga Bay landmarks to the council’s records for restoration and maintenance.

Tolaga Bay man Clive Bibby presented to Gisborne District Council on Thursday, requesting it accept responsibility for the upkeep of Tolaga Bay Wharf and Reynolds Hall.

The wharf is only open to the halfway point because of impacts from Cyclone Hale in January 2023.

Reynolds Hall is open but its ongoing maintenance is the Reynolds Hall Trust’s responsibility.

Bibby said residents could not keep accepting a responsibility that is not theirs “and never has been”.

He said a Deed of Gift stated that when a local authority was established, the building would be transferred to the council’s inventory.

Since 2018, the council has developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the trust. Under this agreement, the council provides advice and support to the trust, while the trust is responsible for applying for funding through the appropriate channels. However, funding is not guaranteed.

Both sites were registered as Category II historic places in 1984, with the wharf being upgraded to Category I in 2009.

According to Heritage New Zealand, the Tolaga Bay Wharf, a 660-metre concrete structure, was a significant engineering achievement when it opened on November 22, 1929.

It was created by the Tolaga Bay Wharf board to service the rural community as the main route for incoming supplies and to export meat and wool when the region had limited road access.

The now pedestrian-only site is a popular walking spot for tourists and features in many campaigns advertising the East Coast.

After the wharf’s retirement from commercial activity, it fell into disrepair. Since 2001, it has been undergoing a staged restoration as funds become available.

Bibby said he and resident “Aunty” Dolly Mitchell, who watched Bibby present from the council chambers, had raised $6 million over 30 years for the restoration.

According to Heritage New Zealand, “public support for its preservation has been considerable, with additional financial support from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, the New Zealand Lotteries Board, private benefactors and the Gisborne District Council”.

Bibby said once the community began to show its capability to raise funds, the council became supportive of their activities and made a significant contribution, even designating engineers to work in an oversight role and a fulltime engineer to supervise the restoration work.

“The partnership was an outstanding success. Both men were able to sign off the restoration work by giving a final report of the wharf’s structural soundness.”

Bibby said the engineer recommended in a letter to the council that an annual sum of $20,000 should be allocated to the wharf structure for maintenance.

He said over recent years the council had “misspent the money allocated to the Coast wharves [Tolaga Bay, Tokomaru Bay and Hicks Bay] ... spending the money on unnecessary expensive engineers’ reports that have resulted in the wharf being closed indefinitely to human traffic, citing “danger to human safety” as the reason for the closure”.

Mayor Rehette Stoltz “cautioned” Bibby and told him the council chief executive took health and safety seriously.

“They would not close the wharf just to close it ... they have to investigate health and safety,” she said.

Bibby questioned the accuracy of the council’s engineering reports.

“Why they choose to go to somebody else beggars belief,” he said.

According to the Gisborne District Council Facebook page, it is planned to add a ladder to the halfway mark of the wharf before summer so people could still jump off it.

Bibby said the Tolaga Bay Wharf was “the entry to the East Coast ... you go for a trip on a plane, or look in a tourist magazine ... when they’re promoting the East Coast Tairāwhiti ... the big picture is always the Tolaga Bay Wharf”.

Bibby highlighted the wharf and Reynolds Hall as examples of the council not honouring “their side of the bargain” and now their “taonga are under threat of collapse”.

“Come on, council. When are you going to fully honour your undertakings of the past?”

Stoltz said all information on the wharf and Reynolds Hall would be put together for councillors to take a look at “in due course”.