Vandalism and littering in the recently upgraded Harrisons Cut carpark and beach access area has upset local residents.

A Papamoa resident contacted SunLive after being disappointed to discover graffiti on the new Harrisons Cut carpark's seats, scattered broken bottles, and cans in surrounding dunes of the area where locals walk last week.

The caller, who wishes to remain anonymous, says they had just returned from their summer holiday and that the new carpark appears to be a site for parties.

The Harrisons Cut carpark opened in December 2022.

Upgrades were carried out in the area to improve safety and resilience of the accessway with a new retaining wall built along the stream edge of Papamoa Beach Reserve.

A new footpath and road upgrades were also completed to give locals and visitors better beach access.

Tauranga City Council's spaces and places operations manager Warren Aitken says it's disappointing to hear that littering and vandalism is taking place in the Harrisons Cut area.

Other locals have also complained about the upgraded space.

'Council has recently received three complaints regarding graffiti and litter in the Harrisons Cut area, which were all promptly responded to by council maintenance contractors.

Maintaining spaces

'Like all council-managed public spaces, the Harrisons Cut carpark area will be maintained under a regular maintenance schedule,” says Warren.

'Reserve maintenance contractors frequently carry out routine inspections of this area to ensure any maintenance issues are identified and rectified as soon as possible.

'In addition to inspections, formal asset inspections are carried out across the year where the condition of assets such as seats, fences, signs, furniture and bollards are checked and any repair works are added to a maintenance schedule.”

CCTV coming

The Papamoa caller says they believed council was going to include CCTV as part of the Harrisons Cut upgrades and also wondered whether the area will be gated to reduce vandalism and littering incidences.

'CCTV is planned to be installed in this area over the next few months and the need for any other safety measures, such as a gate, will be regularly assessed,” says Warren.

'We appreciate the community getting in touch and encourage people to report any issue to us so we can get our contractors on site to clean it up.”

TCC's contact centre is available 24/7.

To let council know of any issues in the Harrisons Cut area, phone: 07 577 7000.