A health and safety risk assessment will be done before the Waitaki District Council applies to allow the public back on to the breakwater at Oamaru Harbour. The council learned in June it was in breach of its consent for the breakwater if it allowed public access to the 1872 Heritage New Zealand category 1 structure. Last year the Otago Regional Council provided the Otago Daily Times with its 2007 coastal permit, a two-page consent that includes six conditions. "But also, there’s a massive safety risk there if a big wave came over if people were there and weren’t watching the sea." A spokesman for the regional council said the organisation was ‘‘awaiting a resource consent application in regards to the breakwater".

Source: Otago Daily Times January 13, 2020 15:45 UTC