The Auckland Regional Council is recommending that sand dredging at Pakiri beach, north of Auckland, comes to an end.

Residents and landowners blame the dredging, which provides sand for New Zealand's booming building industry, for massive erosion at the beach.

Locals insisted the dredging has caused erosion and was destroying the beach.

"It was visible, tree roots showing, it was quite clear," says Nicholas Williams of Friends of Pakiri Beach.

Two dredging companies wanted to continue removing almost 80,000 cubic metres of sand from Pakiri every year for the next 20 years. The companies argued the dredging does not harm the environment but the council disagreed.
 
"There are other places that the building industry can extract the sand...this being a unique beach we felt we couldn't replace," Dianne Glenn of the Auckland Regional Council says.

"This is a significant beach, it has a very wild character, and this is very unusual for an east coast beach in the East Coast region," says Glenn

The two companies involved did not want to comment about the decision, but do have the opportunity to appeal it.

"It's in everyone's interests that this stops...and we hope they don't appeal," says Williams.

The conservation minister has four weeks to make his final decision on whether the dredging should continue.