Flowers trigger battle of the berm

PLANTED: Jo Smith has been asked by the Napier City Council to remove her flowers. PHOTO/WARREN BUCKLAND

A Napier resident trying to beautify her street has been told in a council "crackdown" to remove her $700 flower project because it breaches "natural justice".

Tamatea property owner Jo Smith said she planted the shrubbery on what she thought was her Wharerangi Rd property to reduce the traffic noise and fume emissions from the neighbouring and busy Church Rd.

After buying the corner property on the two streets and beginning to build a home on the empty lot last year, she planted the carpet rose, gardenia and griselinia hedge in November, costing her $700.

"All we're trying to do is help with the traffic noise for my father who will live downstairs and close to the fence line," she said.

However, on February 9, a letter to Mrs Smith from Napier City Council's roading branch said the berm was deemed to be a "public domain" and was largely to be kept as grass.

"What does that mean? Are people allowed to come and have a picnic on there?"

Reasons the letter cited for not allowing the introduction of flora were its interference with a vehicle driver's line of sight, and the need for access to underground utilities such as water mains, powerlines and fibre optic cables.

Council roading department manger Peter Scott told Hawke's Bay Today everything outside the property boundary was legal road, which is public land "that all citizens have equal rights to use and enjoy".

He said the term "berm" usually includes everything between the edge of the carriageway and the boundary such as footpaths, grass strips and open drains; while the term "road frontage" is often used to describe the berm in front of an individual property.

New Zealand had a tradition of urban residents looking after their road frontages and sometimes this extended into private landscaping, he added.

However, Mrs Smith said pedestrians and cyclists caused more distraction and blocked a driver's line of sight more than her plants, adding her neighbours had already commented on how beautiful the flowers would be.

"People walk past and say it will look great when it's grown," she said. "We're just trying to beautify the street. I'm aware they aren't allowed to encroach on the path, but I'm quite happy to maintain it.

"If people are going to try and make them look nice, then what's wrong with that?"

Mr Scott said minor encroachments were often tolerated but intrusive features that limited public use of the land, interfered with paths and sightlines, or threatened or blocked access to buried utilities, needed to be removed.

He said there was no "crackdown" on residents planting flowers on council land but any private landscape features on a legal road "remain there at council's pleasure".

They needed to be removed on request, either from the council or from a network utility operator requiring access for underground services. "At heart though, it is an issue of natural justice, legal road is public land and it needs to be available to everyone," he said.