By Melissa Davies
Life’s a beach for the surfers who have come from all over the world to
compete at Piha, but for some residents the beach is too lively.
The mayor of Waitakere has rubbished the safety concerns of some residents in Piha, where the Junior World Surf Championship began today.
Some locals say the expected influx of up to 10,000 people is too much for the Piha roads to handle.But police say their handling of the massive event will be under a global microscope and they're determined to keep it trouble-free.
Jan O’Connor says it's dangerous to have so many people using the one road that leads to Piha. She says the council should have organised public transport for the youth event.
“Young kids will be getting in with young people who've only recently got their drivers licence to take passengers and are not used to the Piha road, which has a lot of problems with accidents,” she says.
Senior sergeant Regan James of Waitakere Police says Piha’s windy roads were carefully considered prior to the event.
“It is a risk with the location that there's only one access route into Piha, and that's one of the factors we've considered in our planning.
Ms O’Connor is angry the Auckland and Waitakere councils bid around half a million dollars to hold the event.
But Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey says a small group of Piha residents are against everything.
“We had a couple of concerts a couple of weeks ago and they said they couldn't sleep - well it was during the day…And they couldn't think, well, I don't know if they think that much anyway,” he says.
Takeaway shop owner Adrian Doggett, of Blairs on the Beach, says the event is good for the community but he wants to see some controls.
“The local businesses need the support and fair enough if you get a licence as these guys have done here and they're working in harmony with us,” he says.
“But any hawkers, no, stay away please - play fair.”
In the days leading up to the competition there were some homemade signs around Piha that said 'anti-surf competition', but today those signs are nowhere to be seen.
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