The site of the former rotary washing line, on publicly-owned land between two Shelly Park homes. Photo / Dean Purcell
The site of the former rotary washing line, on publicly-owned land between two Shelly Park homes. Photo / Dean Purcell
The placement of a humble rotary washing line is at the centre of an ongoing battle between two neighbours in a million-dollar Auckland beachfront enclave.
Anita Reynolds and Karen Newton have lived in neighbouring homes adjacent to the peaceful Pohutukawa Ave Esplanade Reserve, in the East Auckland suburb of Shelly Park, for 20 years.
Until December last year a rotary washing line stood between the two.
Land in front of the homes, and their neighbours', is council reserve and a track has been opened up to the public. But many residents make use of the reserve, for plants, trampolines and - in Reynolds case - a washing line.
A couple of years ago, Newton complained to the council that the washing line was a hazard to her and her family as it stood between her home and the cable car the homes share to get access to the cliff-top access road above.
Council staff took the washing line away, but Reynolds and her husband, Clive, have asked the Howick Local Board for permission to put it back.
The washing line in use, before it was taken down. Photo / Supplied
The feud has left the neighbours barely speaking.
Reynolds, 63, told the Herald she knew the line, which was on the property before she moved in, was on reserve land, but she had nowhere else to put it.
It was well away from where the public walked, and other residents were also using the reserve for their own property, Reynolds said.
"I don't complain about the big trampoline down there [at another neighbour's house], because the kids enjoy it. And she [Newton] has put a concrete slab [on the reserve] for her chairs and planted olive trees, with a hammock between. That's obstruction as well.
"It isn't fair."
It was only a few metres walk for Newton to go around the washing line, Reynolds said.
"Even her husband walked around. Nobody walked here, only her."
The neighbours live on the waterfront below Pohutukawa Ave, in the East Auckland suburb of Shelly Park. Photo / Google Earth
After council workers took the line down, she had tried to speak to Newton, but got no response.
"It was just after the earthquakes and I said to her 'people are dying in earthquakes and dying of hunger and you are worried about a washing line?'"
Newton said the line was a danger and should not have been on reserve land.
Other properties had lines on the reserve before the council asked residents to move them back when the coastal walkway was opened up to the public.
She would remove her own additions to the reserve, if asked, Newton said.
Previous requests to Reynolds to move the line had been ignored - even to other parts of the reserve, she said.
"We have no doubt in our mind it was there to stop us using that access .. it was dead centre."
The neighbours live in the peaceful beachfront enclave of Shelly Park, where homes front on to publicly-owned reserve and a coastal pathway. Photo / Dean Purcell
The local board will decide tonight if Reynolds can return her washing line to the reserve, but in a council report in the board agenda recommended the request be turned down.
"The proposed encroachment of the washing line into the reserve is minor in nature, however adds to the perception that the esplanade reserve is privately owned land, which in turn discourages the public to use the reserve as it was intended."
