The owner of a secluded multi-million dollar coastal property near Langs Beach has been ordered by the Environment Court to remove structures he illegally built on the foreshore. 

Graeme Douglas Bowkett built a 52-metre long concrete plinth topped with a series of 1cu m stone box gabion baskets and a 25sq m concrete boat ramp in front of his house in a bay between McKenzie Cove and Anderson Cove, last July. 

He said it was to replace a boat ramp destroyed by Cyclone Gabrielle in February that year and to future-proof the foreshore from further storm erosion. 

To get to the boat ramp from the end of his drive, Bowkett also constructed a metalled accessway – about 15m of which ran across a Whangārei District Council (WDC) reserve. 

He hadn’t sought consents for any of the work or permission to use the council land. 

Some of Graeme Bowkett's unauthorised works at the centre of a recent Environment Court case. The court ordered Bowkett to remove gabion baskets (pictured) along with a 52-metre long concrete-base beneath them, and a boat ramp all of which he illegally installed in front of his home in a secluded cove near Langs Beach. He was also ordered to restore district council reserve land he'd metalled. Photo / supplied. 

Even though the area is not frequently accessed by the public, the work was nevertheless seen by someone who reported it to Northland Regional Council, which alerted the district council. 

Abatement notices were issued to Bowkett requiring the works to be removed, the councils claiming the failure to get consent breached district and regional plan rules. 

However, Bowkett appealed to the Environment Court arguing the notices weren’t appropriately issued and at a hearing in March, this year, his legal counsel argued the foreshore structures qualified as permitted or exempt under provisions in the plans. 

The court ruled otherwise. In its recently-released decision, Judge Jeff Smith granted the councils’ application to enforce the notices, ordered Bowkett to remove the structures and restore the reserve land. 

Judge Smith said Bowkett did the works in deliberate defiance of obligations, which he must have known about. 

“Mr Bowkett is clearly a person well experienced in resource management issues. He stated himself that he had spent his life in this type of work, and he has been and is a director of major companies that are well aware of their resource management responsibilities. 

“Accordingly, we see the decision to undertake the work without permission as a deliberate one and in the knowledge that works on another’s land and adjacent to the Coastal Marine Area would require both the permission of the landowner and a resource consent.” 

Among his financial interests, Bowkett is a director and 84 per cent shareholder in a company trading as Green Gorilla – one of two big firms challenging the dominant overseas players in New Zealand’s waste industry. 

In recent years, the company has won major contracts in the municipal waste market, taking over from Waste Management and Enviro NZ. 

An image showing Graeme Bowkett’s secluded house in relation to unauthorised structures on the nearby foreshore and a track he metalled across council reserve land. 

Bowkett wanted the court to exercise its discretion and allow the structures to remain in place at least until the completion of an application for consent and any works associated with the installation of a permanent solution for protection from the sea. 

He claimed the removal of his works might lead to further erosion and the permanent loss of the esplanade reserve in that area – and he and his family and neighbours’ access to the beach. 

Judge Smith refused. The structures weren’t built for emergency reasons, Bowkett had already had nearly a year to comply with the notices; the removal of the structures didn’t require a resource consent and would pose little risk of damage to the environment and neither council was concerned by the prospect of further erosion, which was a natural process. 

The court also had to consider the importance of retaining the integrity of the District Plan, the judge said. 

Graeme Bowkett's multi-million dollar home is in one of the secluded coves on the headland south-east of Langs Beach. Photo / Michael Cunningham 

Plans were required to set out controls under which parties could undertake work either on their own property or on others. 

“The plan is the antithesis of the self-help approach to remedying residents’ concerns. 

“To prevent abatement notices being effective would encourage self-help and breach of Plan provisions,” the judge said. 

“To allow parties to undertake this type of work on others’ land without permission, in our view sets a dangerous precedent.” 

Those matters “outweighed any inconvenience to Mr Bowkett of having to redo the work if he obtains a consent”, Judge Smith said 

Commenting on the case, Clark Ehlers, compliance monitoring manager for the Northland Regional Council, said the unauthorised sea wall was one of many that appeared around the region after Gabrielle. 

Regulation of coastal structures was necessary “to ensure our coastline didn’t become impacted by too many structures that were not well designed, placed or maintained to preserve public open space and visual amenity value of our coastline. 

“Council monitors structures to ensure they are maintained in good order and repair. Where they are built without authorisation, there is no control on the impact they could have on the amenity value of a beach.” 

In addition to being ordered to reinstate an area, people who illegally carried out such works could face prosecution and fines of up to $300,000 for an individual, up to $600,000 for a company and even imprisonment. 

Bowkett said he was happy to meet with the Northern Advocate but was in Europe until mid-July. 

Online property valuation sites estimate Bowkett’s 19.7ha Cove Rd property, located down a long, private driveway, is currently worth anywhere between about $4m and $5.58m. He purchased it back in 1994 for $400,000. Its improvements – a house with six car garaging – have a floorspace of 210sq m. 

Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, much of which she spent court reporting. She is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.