The managing director of a company that owns a Taihape station says the Department of Conservation is going back on a promise made 48 years ago to make a paper road “disappear”.
Jessamine Corpe, MD of Maia Manawanui Whenua, said as a result of the broken promise, negotiations between Mokai Station and the DoC for access to public land through the station are failing.
The dispute relates to a Non-Registered Easement entered into 48 years ago by Corpe’s father-in-law, Bruce Corpe, and the New Zealand Forest Service, now the DoC.
Corpe said she is in possession of decades-old documents showing the DoC agreed to a road stoppage of the paper road, officially known as an unformed legal road (ULR), if public access to the Ruahine range was granted via the Non-Registered Easement.
The DoC did not keep to the agreement, she said.
The ULR crosses a considerable section of the station, with the easement crossing only a small section, making it more practical for access.
Except for crossing a large section of the farm, the ULR is also not practical as it ends near a cliff face, making access to DoC land difficult, she said.
The DoC is now demanding further access points, wants part of the ULR accessible for the public to get to a scenic reserve on the farm, and still wants access via the Non-Registered Easement to the Ruahine ranges before continuing with negotiations, she said.
Opening the new access points would mean Corpe would have to move sheep yards and move a bridge.
The family has spent almost $100,000 in legal fees in attempts to come to an agreement.
The negotiations have been ongoing for four years, she said.
Corpe believes the DoC is heavily influenced by the Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC), which are pushing for access.
Corpe said they don’t want to bar the public, but with negotiations stalling they are considering exercising that right.
“The ideal outcome would be for us to directly speak to the DoC’s director,” she said.
“Out of good faith we’ve given the opportunity for people to access the tops through the easement. But it feels like we’re being threatened for our generosity.”
“I just want the original agreement to be adhered to,” she said.
District operations manager for the DoC Moana Smith-Dunlop said an easement agreement was signed in 1976 between the New Zealand Forest Service and the landowner to establish access across the property.
The DoC succeeded the New Zealand Forest Service in 1987.
ULR, also known as “paper roads”, are managed by the local council and the DoC does not have statutory responsibility for unformed legal roads, Smith-Dunlop said.
“DoC would prefer a shorter easement route following established tracks across the Corpe property and to update the historic easement agreement to a more modern format.
“If the owner does not want to amend the easement terms, DoC is happy for the existing easement to remain unchanged.”
The DoC advised the landowner’s solicitor of this in July 2023, she said.
“DoC considers the landowner is more likely to have a successful road-stopping application if access to Ruahine Forest Park is improved.
“DoC considers an improved access route has potential to minimise disruption to farming operations by reducing time required to cross the private property and increasing adherence to an agreed track.”
Smith-Dunlop said negotiations are stalling as Corpe wants the DoC to stop the ULR before engaging further.
“DoC has no statutory authority over unformed legal roads and therefore cannot meet the landowner’s expectation.”
FMC president Megan Dimozantos said the club has been putting pressure on the DoC to resolve the access situation.
Dimozantos said ULR have particular features attached to them.
A ULR is not a landowner’s property, is usually about 50m wide, is generally managed by the district council, allows vehicles and dogs, access is in perpetuity, and they can’t be revoked without the full support of the public, she said.
ULRs are generally the preferred mechanism for access.
Dimozantos said the ULR that goes across Mokai Station is in an inconvenient spot, for example going past buildings or up steep hills.
“If there were changes made to the easement that allowed dogs to go across on lead, firearms to go across, potentially for it to go straight through to Iron Bark Hut, then the community would be more supportive of a road stoppage, but as it stands that easement doesn’t have the same access in perpetuity and the same access rights as what that ULR has.
“Until people can be assured that the easement is going to have the same features as the ULR, people are probably not going to be supportive of the ULR road stoppage.”
A ULR road stoppage generally goes out for consultation.
If there are submissions against it, it goes to the Environment Court.
The Environment Court will assess it and will generally decline the road stoppage unless the net benefit is in favour of the public, Dimozantos said.
“To get the support for the stoppage of the ULR the landowner would need to be agreeable to the easement being redrafted so that the features and the access and perpetuity that is currently afforded by the ULR applied to the easement.”
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