Owner must pay to fix their own driveway, council says

The Marlborough District Council has confirmed it does not pay for private driveway alterations after fielding queries from a resident for “a number of years”.

The resident had been complaining to the council about the width and angle of their driveway, which had been scraping the underside of vehicles. The standards for driveways had changed since it was built in the 1970s, and the resident said as a result, the council should pay to widen the driveway and change its angle.

Marlborough Roads general manager Steve Murrin raised the resident’s complaints at an assets and services committee meeting in January.

The resident had vehicles and a caravan that suffered scraping damage when entering the driveway, because of the lower profile of the modern vehicles compared to those of earlier years.

Marlborough Roads staff had visited the site on several occasions to talk the the resident. But the resident disagreed with this approach and wanted councillors to confirm what policy staff should follow.

The council’s subdivision standards were guided by infrastructure standards at the time, “which is the subdivision and infrastructure development standard which all the country uses”, Murrin told the council. “Some councils do make minor edits to those standards, but overall that is the standard that the country works to, and they do change over time.”

Murrin asked the council to consider and confirm its policy, in case the issue came up again with other driveways in the region.

“I know when I started with council, a standard crossing was 9ft wide, 2.7m,” he said. “It has now progressed to 3.5m wide, probably now because a lot of houses have double garages now.”

About 70% of driveway crossings in Blenheim were less than 3.5m wide. Murrin said it should stay with the owner of the property to upgrade their driveway, rather than it being a cost for council.

“I see it no different than if I built a house 20 years ago with single glazing, [and] the rules changed. The building company [wouldn’t then] pay to put double glazing in for me.”

Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor said the council was formalising what had been in practice across the province anyway.

“Subdivisions, developments are a product of their time, and as you drive across any town or city you will see slight variations, but they were appropriate when they were put in,” Taylor said. “As long as they're still obviously appropriately maintained, then they should sit as they were. That's the way we've been operating, so it's just important that we formalise that, in my view, to give staff and officers a direction.”

Wairau-Awatere ward councillor Scott Adams said if the property owner wanted to change their driveway it should be at their own cost. “So there is still that option there, but you do it for yourself, not expect the ratepayer to cover it,” Adams said.

The committee was in agreement of the policy, which was signed off at full council on February 26.