A clear majority of voters want the roadway through Omana Esplanade Reserve retained.

A referendum sent to all Beachlands and Maraetai enrolled voters asked for a yes or no vote on the proposition: "that the informal road through the Omana Esplanade Reserve be removed to allow for redevelopment of the reserve".

The results show 577 in favour of closure and 1290 against.

Despite an early flurry of voting, the final turnout was 43% - on a par with a normal local body election turnout.

The vote is non-binding and will go before a full meeting of Manukau City Council next week where it will probably be referred on to the Policy & Activities committee. That committee will probably make recommendations which will then go before the Clevedon Community Board.

The board holds the designated authority to make the final decision, but the council holds the purse strings.

Pohutukawa Coast Grey Power president Bill Bateman is delighted.

"The referendum results confirm the findings of the independent Longdill report, so obviously the referendum was un- necessary," he says

"Local residents re- quested that the road remain open to through traffic with the right to drive off the road and park under a tree for picnic.

"This has been the case for the last 40 years and greatly appreciated by both visitors and local residents.

Keith Walker, of Save Maraetai, is encouraged by the turnout and the clearcut result.

"My feeling since day one was that there was a lot of opposition to the closure. It's nice to have that reinforced.

"It was clear from the Longdill report that a lot of people didn't want it closed. Unfortunately the council and community board didn't want to see that.

"It will be hard for the council to ignore this result I hope they will reconsider and start thinking outside the square."

Keith says credit should go to Bill Bateman for all the work he has done on leading the campaign to keep the road open.

Says Botany Clevedon councillor Michael Williams: "The new Local Board now has a clear signal from the community to keep the road open."

"This is a victory for democracy and I am very pleased that we have sorted this issue out before we move to the new Auckland governance structure."

Says Clevedon Com- munity Board chairman Maurice Hinton: "I was expecting the vote to be a lot closer.

"The interesting fact is that a 43% return is not a big response and you wonder whether the community is ap- athetic or has more imp- ortant things they are considering.

"We had been led to believe the whole community was against the proposal, so I'm not sure where we go from here.

"How you deal with the silent majority is always interesting."

Maurice says the debate will now be re-opened and the board faces a difficult decision.

"It will come down to how much weight- ing is put on public opinion verses all the professional opinion that was recommending the road be removed."

Maurice says if the road is retained, then the council will have to consider the road's status.

"If it was to become a formal extension of Omana Esplanade, then the council may not have the ability to close it at night and it could become a 24/7 open road.

"There is quite a bit of discussion now to be had."