Spring Creek summer swimming stopped for stopbank safety

Marlborough District Council is prohibiting people from swimming at a popular unofficial swimming hole this summer, with trespassing delays holding both financial and flooding costs to the region.

With work underway on upgrading flood protection for Spring Creek, a popular section of the river near the Ferry Bridge is now off limits for swimming.

Council’s Group Manager Infrastructure and Services Richard Coningham said the river and the area immediately below the bridge will be hazardous for all swimming, recreating and bathing activities during the construction of the new stop banks.

“With the commencement of works on the Peninsula Road stop bank at Spring Creek, the river is going to be hazardous to swim in due to large machinery operating in and on both sides of the river, and at times work will disturb the river silts, therefore Council has made the decision to prohibit this”, Richard says.

“This is not a decision taken lightly. It is for the safety of the public and to allow us to progress this important flood control work for the protection of the Spring Creek community. The closure will extend through until the completion of the stop bank works in June 2027”.

The upgrade to two primary sections of stop bank along Peninsula Road near the township is needed to prevent the banks failing. If this happened it would compromise the safety of Spring Creek township and State Highway 1.

Rivers manager Andy White echoed Richard, saying that the closure was a tough one to make in a popular unofficial swimming hole on Council land, but it was with the urgent requests from Spring Creek residents for flood safety in mind.

“The pure quantity of rock, the heavy machinery involved, makes it a big task already in the time we have so we can’t afford to be stopping to avoid swimmers out of having Spring Creek safe from flooding next winter. Work has already started on the Wairau’s true left, and with such a short time frame to get work done before mid-April when we have the lowest flood risk months while avoiding white baiting season”.

“We understand it’s such a nice spot, but the last thing we want is our contractors turning around and saying they can’t work due to trespassing swimmers which would cost ratepayers thousands for every hour, and delays the crucial work building out into the river while it is at its lowest flood risk”.

The repair and resilience work in Spring Creek will be funded by Council and the Government’s Kānoa regional development fund. The project cost is $22.5M with $13.8M funded by Kānoa and the remainder by Council. The contract for the project was awarded in early November to Taylors Contracting Co Ltd and is on track for completion in June 2027.