No beach buggies

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32789, 14 December 1971, Page 16

No beach buggies

A correspondent recently urged that “ beach “buggies” be banned from the foreshores. Local authorities generally exclude motor vehicles from the beaches under their control; and they should certainly hesitate to allow anyone to drive a vehicle on a beach without exceptional and very good reasons. Such reasons would not include the supposed pleasure of churning over the beaches and dunes on machines devised to ride the sands. It Is far more important to keep the beaches safe—and quiet—for those who prefer to enjoy them in other ways. When the Waimairi County Council commissioned a report on the planning of reserves along its foreshore die landscape development service at Lincoln College made a careful study of the area. Its report laid special emphasis on the sensitiveness of the dune area, and of the. immediate hinterland, to interference by man. While contriving to open up a recreation area for as many people as possible, the landscape service also took care to preserve the delicate balance that nature has established. The report demonstrated that what seemed to the untrained and casual eye to be rugged and robust territory is in fact landscape that can very easily be destroyed. Such destruction and disturbances should not be hastened by machines. Beach buggies have not yet become widely popular in New Zealand and prospective buggy riders should be discouraged. There are undoubtedly some beaches in New Zealand to which they could be directed without much harm being done; none of these are near Christchurch. Public enthusiasm for the conservation of natural resources should ensure for local authorities an almost unanimous approval of their refusing to tolerate mechanical nuisances on the beaches. Here the pleasure of the few and the pleasure of the many are incompatible. Particularly is this true on the doorstep of a city.