15 Jul 2010

Iwi welcomes blocking of housing development

8:44 am on 15 July 2010

A south Auckland iwi Ngai Tai ki Umupuia, is elated the Environment Court has blocked a canal housing development on the Wairoa River on Auckland's southeastern fringe.

The manager of Ngai Tai Umupuia Te Waka Totara Trust, Laurie Beamish, says the tribe traditionally buried its dead between the river's high and low tide marks, Waatea News reports.

He says putting more than 260 houses along canals bulldozed into the side of the river would have destroyed many urupa (Maori cemeteries).

Mr Beamish says the development did not fit with the Manukau City's future development plans which the iwi had been consulted on.