Six years of slip warnings ignored
Six years of erosion concerns fell on deaf ears at Auckland Council and now a family have an eight metre slip in their backyard and a telephone pole dangling precariously over it.
Paul and Emma Stylianou want answers as to which council arm, council stormwater or Auckland Transport, they should hold accountable for ignoring their concerns. Concerns which could have been easily remedied, but now a major operation to sort the mess out will cost ratepayers big bucks, they say.
Since 2011 they have been complaining about a stormwater pipe running under Hobbs Rd, Matakatia.
When it rains water flows out like a waterfall, eroding the bank beneath, Paul says. He approached the council after a minor slip in 2011, then again after a second left his boundary fence in the air,
‘‘I have been telling them it is going to collapse,’’ he says.
Nothing was ever done and the two departments both said it was each other’s responsibility.
They tried again in 2015, followed up in 2016 - again nothing, Paul says.
The downpour that saw Adele donning a poncho for her final concert on March 26 brought the final drops needed for the slope to give way.
Stormwater spokeswoman Jess Etheridge says, after a site visit in 2011, Auckland Transport were informed it was their responsibility.
Auckland Transport chose not to answer questions on who was responsible for the pipe and why the issue hadn’t been fixed. Recent heavy rainfall had caused slips ‘onto’ Hobbs Rd and works were underway to clear them, AT spokesman Mark Hannan says.
‘‘A geotechnical engineer has assessed the site and is working with Auckland Transport on the design of a permanent fix for this section of Hobbs Road including a retaining wall and a bund, which is a low wall used to divert water,’’ he said.
Paul wasn’t surprised to hear about workers clearing away a slip which never fell on the road . He said he’d put it on his ‘‘blatant lie’’ pile with information received from a council phone operator some years ago when he called the stormwater department to make yet another complaint. He was told contractors Fulton Hogan had been out and fixed the issue.