Fight to use public access roads | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

A huge black horse trots happily along Long Rd in the Waitakere Ranges with his rider, Vivien Dostine, until he reaches a  gate - and is forced to stop.

The black beauty lives up to his name, Impulsive, and stops to snack on wildflowers growing at the roadside.

His impulse to gallop freely is reined in by the locked gate. Ms Dostine shakes her head at the impasse preventing the pair going any further  on a long, scenic road that links Bethells Beach with Anawhata Regional Park. It's the first of two gates on this stretch, both padlocked  shut by Auckland Council.

Ms Dostine says she first heard about the stretch of track through a horse-riding workshop. "Auckland Regional Council's GIS (geographic information system) department told us about it. They said: 'this is an unformed road. You have 10km of riding here'," she  says.

But the locked gates prevent that  for  all but agile, gate-jumping walkers.

"This road links Pae o Te Rangi Regional Park with Anawhata Regional Park, which is a great asset for horse riders - they could  ride from one park to another."

But she says the council is doing exactly the opposite of what should be done on  public roads - by blocking them off.

Ms Dostine is president of the NZ Horse Recreation Group, which has lodged a submission with the council to be considered in the Auckland Plan to get  so-called "paper roads" kept open and available for recreational use.

The council owns the paper roads.  Always 20m wide, they may have some formation, but may not. They aren't sealed in any way and by law should always be available for public access.

And that's the issue.

"The reason this is so important to us is recreational access," says Ms Dostine. "If we want to create tourism trails and all the rest of it, then many places are actually linked by these paper roads."

There are an estimated 56,000km of unformed roads around the country.

But it isn't just the council that's blocking  access. The main culprits are landowners who own property on either side of the paper roads, who  prevent the public using them.

"We'd like to see  an investigation into the paper-road networks, prioritise the ones that do give people access and can be useful for recreational or rural trails. And then, notify the landowners, or whoever, if they have obstructions on them to remove the obstructions and make them comply with the law. Lots of them provide access for walkers and horse riders to just enjoy a countryside walk without being mowed down on the road."

The paper roads are often also key routes to beaches or forests.

The NZ Walking Access Commission  was formed in 2008 to do just that, partially in response to concerns.  Chairman John Forbes says the group advises on access, and helps with dispute resolution  over access.

"Unformed legal roads are no different in law from formed roads. All roads, whether formed or unformed, can play a vital role in providing access to the outdoors," says Mr Forbes.

Brian Hayes, a land law expert, explains that paper roads came about in the early days when the Crown couldn't keep up with all the land it had to survey. Paper "subdivisions" were put in place.
 

"There was no real intention to form them as roads. They were to provide a means of access across the land," he says.

The Crown actually owned all these "roads" until  30 years ago, when they were transferred to  local councils, which now manage them.

"The key issue that surrounds all roads, whether they be the normal public roads that we travel on or these unformed  roads, is that the rights are exactly the same," says Mr Hayes. "Everyone has the historic right of free passage."

PRIVATE VS PUBLIC
Many local government bodies, including Auckland's, appear to have been unaware of, or ignoring, encroachments  by  landowners,  to the dismay of those who want to use the roads.

One farmer in Waiuku begrudgingly open his locked gates on Smeaton Rd in Glenbrook, a paper road, which he'd been using for grazing. The grazing itself was perfectly legal, the locked gates were not.

"He'd locked the gates and the council  got him to take the locks off his gate," says resident Lynn Copplestone.

He did, but she says for a time the landowner then put his prized bull on the paper road so people still couldn't use it. The residents managed to get the Franklin Local Board to open the road.

Mrs Copplestone, also a horse rider, says it's not just horsey types wanting access to the roads. She says this particular road is a safer alternative route for walkers and cyclists as well,  along with those on mobility scooters. "What we're saying is, as with other countries,  paper roads should be accessible to all.  They're meant to encourage all forms of outdoor access and pursuits, not just cycling and walking," she says. "They are 20m-wide roads. It's not like we're going to get in each other's way."

KAIPARA CASE
Ms Dostine's group is also closely watching developments occurring on another paper road, in Kaipara.

Kaipara residents, in  South Head,  have been engaged in a tug of war with the former Rodney District Council and now, Auckland Council and the Higham family, over a paper road in the family's name. The Highams own a farm on  South Head Peninsula. Higham Rd was established in 1894, and runs through the farm to  inner Kaipara Harbour. It is a safe public access to  Kaipara Harbour, but the Highams want the road stopped.

They say it's an issue of safety. The Highams have run a youth camp in the area for years, and have constructed a building and a toilet block in the middle of the paper road  next to their land. The building is essentially an oversized shed, but it has no building consent because it is on a road.

They want the road "stopped" so a permit can be granted to make the building legal and  vehicles will be prevented from driving through the area because of safety concerns.

A "stopped" paper road can never again be public access, compared with a "closed" paper road, where  access may be limited for a period.

South Head Action Group is dead against stopping access, and local Maori also object in part. Haranui Marae, affiliated to Nga Uri o Te Taou and Ngati Whatua, says vehicle access  is vital to take their elders to important sacred sites, but as long as access is maintained for Maori it  has no problem.

Noel Higham, who runs the youth camp, says the building was put up for a purpose.

"The building was put there as a replacement for the shed that was already on the paper road. It's been there for years as part of the youth camp," Mr Higham says.  "It wasn't put there for our personal purposes. It was put there for the use of the community."

The Highams applied to the Environment Court in July to stop the paper road.  The judge directed both parties to  mediation in November. A week before  mediation, however, the Auckland council, which had inherited the case, and the Higham family, withdrew from the process. Mr Higham says he cannot comment on the case.

South Head Action Group (Shag) is frustrated mediation has ended  and the issue is therefore unresolved. Though the paper road is still public now, they  want a definite legal ruling.

"We're  waiting to hear back  to see what the final word is on it," says John Ayres, from Shag. "It's been very stressful. It took a lot of our time and money. It would be a great day for all the families around here if we can keep the roads opened."

Neither  Auckland Transport nor Auckland Council  appear to view the issue as high priority.

Ms Dostine says she  raised the  issue with Mayor Len Brown at his last "Mayor in the Chair" session in Waiuku. 

She  has a letter from  the Auckland Transport agency, saying they are looking at the problem.

Auckland Transport,  asked if it is aware of  public access potentially  being denied, responded with:

"It would be a significant task for the council to identify, survey and re-establish all of the paper roads in the Auckland Council area. Many of them may not even be shown on current maps and a lot of historical research is likely to be involved."

But Ms Dostine says the council should do just that.

"What we need to do is take a stock of which paper roads are useful and which aren't.

"And that means talking to people who live nearby and the people who want to use them."

WHAT ARE PAPER ROADS?
A paper or unformed road is a legally recognised road that provides public access to a particular area or feature.

They are generally under-developed and often known only to the local community. They can cross farmland or private land.

Paper roads are allowed for free, public access to the waterways since the late 1800s, but recently there has been a concerted effort by some landowners in many parts of New Zealand to prevent public access to these legal roadways.

However rural unformed roads cannot be 'stopped' without the permission of the Minister of Lands (through the Environment Court).