Call for equal rights to use accessway

A pair of neighbours have approached their local board asking for the same access rights to a driveway as a nearby church.

The pair, from Penzance Rd in Mairangi Bay, live on either side of an accessway, which is technically classed as a reserve.

The one-way driveway is used by three private houses and the Mairangi Bay Presbyterian Church. The church has been offered a long-term encumbrance on the use of the ‘‘reserve’’, but the neighbours have been given 10 years of use, they told a local board meeting.

‘‘After a certain period, we would lose the rights to use that,’’ one resident said. ‘‘The church would continue to use it.’’

The pair asked for use of the reserve for as long as the church and said the alternative was to remove on-street parking in front of their homes to form driveways.

Auckland Council’s manager of land advisory services, Remy De La Peza said the encumbrance came about three years ago.

‘‘In 2014, the church applied for a resource consent for works on site, and it was brought to the council’s attention that the reserve was being used for vehicle access by these properties,’’ he said.

In early 2015, the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board decided to grant the church long-term encumbrance unless and until use of the site changed.

‘‘As part of that decision, the local board offered the private properties an encumbrance with a 10-year sunset to allow adequate time for the private owners to establish an alternate legal accessway from Penzance Rd to their properties.’’

De La Peza acknowledged that in order for the private properties to create alternative access, a number of car parks would be lost. Hibiscus and Bays Local Board chairwoman Julia Parfitt said this parking was valuable.

At a handout at the meeting, the residents wrote that the land had been zoned as an accessway since the 1940s.

The neighbours also had concerns about the way repair and maintenance costs were divided with each private house paying 15 per cent and the church paying 55.

‘‘[This] in no way reflects the current vehicular traffic volumes using the accessway,’’ they wrote.

The reserve is technically located at 3 Newhaven Tce and is one of three strips of land with that address.

This accessway has been given via encumbrance to a church to use indefinitely while private property owners who use it to access their homes have 10 years.