Wet-bike ban to apply to Sumner

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 9

Wet-bike ban to apply to Sumner

By

GLENIS CARROLL

A by-law banning wetbikes from Sumner Bay was approved by the Christchurch City Council yesterday. The council acted against legal advice and moved that wet-bikes not be allowed within 180 metres from the water edge of Sumner Bay. The City Solicitor had advised the council that it had the legal power to regulate and control wetbikes but not to expressly prohibit them. The council instead went ahead and also withdrew a recommendation to improve a slipway for wet-bikes at Shag Rock, leaving the riders nowhere to launch their craft at Sumner. It also recommended legal steps be taken to prohibit wet-bikes from the Estuary. The new by-law, prohi-

biting wet-bikes from the area must be approved by the Minister of Transport and the Department of Conservation. Mr Gerald Lascelles, speaking on behalf of Sumner residents, said a handful of wet-bike riders were breaking the tranquility of the area, creating a danger to swimmers and threatening environmental factors.

More than 600 people had earlier signed a petition calling for controls on wet-bikes in the area, he said.

A spokesman for wetbike users, Mr Phillip Davies, told the council wet-bike riders could work safely and successfully within the already existing by-law regulating motorised activities in the Estuary and Sumner Bay. Neither the petitioners nor the council had provided any evidence to the

contrary, he said. “There have not been any prosecutions since wet-bike riders have been using the area nor has the council made any move to place marker buoys to indicate lanes or the 180 metre limit,” he said.

The council was trying to change the regulations because of the alleged behaviour of a few and all wet-bike users would be penalised.

Denying riders access from the Scarborough slipway would put lives at risk if inexperienced riders were forced to launch from Shag Rock and cross the bar, a dangerous stretch of water, he said.

Mr Davies had indicated at earlier meetings that the wet-bike users might consider legal action should the by-law receive final approval.