River road to remain blocked
A gate that has been unlawfully blocking vehicles from travelling the length of a public road beside the Gowan River for more than a decade will remain locked, despite staunch opposition from Fish & Game.
The gate restricts vehicle access to around one kilometre of Gowan East Bank Rd that heads towards Lake Rotoroa, which was used mainly by fishermen to access the river.
Councils do not have the power to agree to a locked gate on a legal road and the Department of Conservation, Walking Access New Zealand, Fish & Game and some neighbours have been pressing the Tasman District Council to order the lock’s removal for years.
Councillors unanimously decided at their latest meeting not to issue a notice ordering the removal of the lock to landowners the Majac Trust, who installed the gate in the early 2000s. The decision was based on a 2009 agreement between the trust and the council, whereby the gate could remain locked if the trust gave unimpeded walking and cycling access across their land between the gate and Lake Rotoroa, which is needed in three spots.
The trust also allowed access to a key to the gate at Rotoroa Lodge for occasional vehicle use.
The council has tried numerous times to negotiate removing the lock with the landowners.
Consistent legal advice to the council has been that it is illegal to have a locked gate on the road and the public is entitled to use the road and it is an offence under the Summary Offences Act to obstruct a public way.
Majac Trust trustee Michael Talley said the majority of the road was on the farm owned by the trust and was put in for the farm’s use, and the lock was installed to keep out poachers.
He said the road was not totally a paper road, contrary to some beliefs.
‘‘The farm has a legal agreement with the council, putting a car park area for fishermen and maintaining a key if necessary at the lodge should a genuine inquiry be made to open the gate.
‘‘Cyclists have easy access over the fence stay and are able to also have access to the farm road allowing exit at Lake Rotoroa.’’
Councillor Zane Mirfin said he was a ‘‘big fan’’ of public access and locked gates were ‘‘anathema’’ to him, but in this case he saw it as a compromise to giving better access to walkers and cyclists.
He said the Gowan River was now a ‘‘crappy horrible place with stunted little fish’’ and was a ‘‘wasp-infested blackberry jungle’’ that stank of didymo, and the demand for fishing there was not what it used to be.
He said he had walked every inch of the road, knew it well and had no problems with access.
Fish & Game Nelson Marlborough Region acting manager Lawson Davey was disappointed with the council’s decision.
‘‘Agreeing to a locked gate on a public road isn’t particularly a good look, it’s their job to uphold the law rather than actually make new ones.’’
He said the agreement the council had entered into didn’t give the public any new benefits.
‘‘The legal road runs the length that is there, sure you couldn’t drive it by vehicle but there is a legal road in existence so legally people have the right to walk up there.’’
He questioned what the council would do if other landowners put gates across formed roads that did not follow legal alignment and said the council was setting a bad precedent.
‘‘It’s a very slippery slope agreeing to a locked gate on a formed public road that is giving access to a public resource, the Gowan.
‘‘There are three minor areas where the public are on Majac Trust land but there’s a large part of the public road that Majac Trust are using.’’
He said Fish & Game was weighing up its options on how to respond to the decision, as it was ‘‘of major concern to Fish & Game both locally and nationally’’.
Deputy Mayor Tim King said there were as many downsides to consistency in the council’s decision making as there were to flexibility. ‘‘There are certainly circumstances where locked gates will impede public access, but in this case the community is better served by this.’’
TDC chief executive Lindsay McKenzie said in his report to the council that ‘‘the lock confers a public benefit that outweighs the inconvenience’’. That benefit would otherwise be ‘‘difficult if not impossible to achieve’’.
There are two other gates to the Gowan owned by the trust that may need to be considered in future, he said.
Walking Access Commission operations manager Ric Cullinane said all the parties involved agreed the road was illegal but he said legal solutions were often counterproductive to relationships and financially, and the commission would continue to work with TDC to secure public access to the Gowan River.