Family fight Crown demolition order

Tracey Wech removed 300 haybales from the shed to stop it being spoiled. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Farmers battling the Crown over land under the Northern Gateway toll road intend blocking contractors from demolishing a hay store on the Waiwera River property this morning.

Michael Wech says the Crown has wrongly claimed a 3ha isthmus owned by his father Colin, and which his family has farmed since gaining title to it in 1912, as an island surrounded by water to be held in the Department of Conservation estate.

He said it was ironic in view of the watery claim that contractors to Crown agents intended driving over a grassed belt under police oversight to reach the property off Weranui Rd and pull down a dilapidated building used to store hay and furniture.

Herald reporters drove to the alleged island yesterday under escort by Mr Wech's wife, Tracey, who runs horses there and is annoyed at having had to remove more than 300 bales of hay from the building for fear of spoilage by the contractors.

Mr Wech said the Transport Agency wanted to remove the building last year, but backed off after he demanded that it be replaced by a new structure, to keep his father's occupational rights alive until the land could be resurveyed.

The family had already begun the survey under advice from Land Information NZ, and he accused the Crown of trying to undermine that process in a bid to legitimise what amounted to theft, in reliance on a map which included "a false river bank drawn across dry land".

He said the access track to the isthmus remained above the Waiwera River at all times - even in spring tides - and the grass growing around it was clearly visible from the new motorway viaduct above, for which his father lost 20ha of land representing about a quarter of his farm under the Public Works Act.

Mr Wech has written to Prime Minister John Key as well as Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson and local MP and Speaker Lockwood Smith.

Transport Agency acting regional director Tommy Parker said last night that he understood Land Information NZ was acting as agent for the Crown in asserting its ownership rights, and his organisation was no longer involved.

The Mana Waiata Restoration and Protection Society, a conservation group which fought fiercely to improve environmental conditions on the motorway construction, has researched documents about the disputed land and is backing the Wech family's stand.

A Crown property agent involved in correspondence with the Wech family refused to comment last night, referring Herald inquiries to the Transport Agency.