Western Bay of Plenty District Council engineer Peter Clark is reassuring Omokoroa residents that yesterday's ‘landslide' poses no risk.

He says it was a major incident when land first subsided there over 30 years ago, but yesterday's event was a slide of dirt across the original slip face.

Engineers say yesterday's landslide at Omokoroa appears much worse than it actually is.

Bramley Drive lies at the top of the slip site, which originally subsided in the late 1970s.

The nearest home to the slip is about 20 metres away.

'Nothing has changed significantly in terms of the risk profile,” says Peter.

'It looks a lot worse than it actually is.”

What people are seeing now is a 'small” amount of surface dirt that subsided down the old slip face, says Peter.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council estimates no more than a few cubic metres of dirt and vegetation fell away.

When the slip first occurred in the late 1970s, Peter says about 1.2ha of land subsided and created a mini peninsula in the estuary 30 metres below.

'1.2ha is how much fell over 30 years ago – it was correct then, but all that happened yesterday was vegetation failed to hold up a very thin layer of dirt and it gave way.”

Council staff will monitor the site as a precaution but no new cracks or major changes have been spotted.