A family that set up an assortment of dwellings at a Tanners Point reserve has been moved on after a costly court battle. Photo / George Novak
Nearly $100,000 of ratepayers' money has been spent removing a family from a make-shift "shantytown" on a public reserve north of Katikati.
Charles Hill and his family had occupied Tahawai Reserve at Tanners' Point since at least 2019. He claimed it was the whanau's ancestral right to be there but Western Bay of Plenty District Council, local hapu Ngati Te Wai and, eventually, the courts disagreed.
In 2020, the Bay of Plenty Times reported on concerns about the Hill's occupation of the land, which involved police visits, trespass and eviction notices, plus a statement from tangata whenua that the family's actions were not representative of the tribe.
Local residents were also concerned about an apparent lack of sanitation in what they described as a "shantytown". The reserve has no wastewater system and its original water supply was disconnected.
At that time, Charles Hill, his daughter Michelle Hill, her toddler and his 73-year-old father Robert Hill were occupying the reserve.
However, efforts to remove the family were unsuccessful. They continued to live onsite with a caravan, small cabin, shipping containers, five vehicles and two other outbuildings.
Observations revealed a makeshift garage housing a boat, quadbikes, various equipment and household goods were either constructed or brought onto the land. At one point a placenta was buried onsite and towards the end of last year, and it is understood an excavator was used to begin carving up the land, located near State Highway 2.
Western Bay council chief executive John Holyoake said the issue in 2020 had become "very public" and had the risk of "becoming quite messy - through it becoming public, which we weren't prepared to do given there was a family involved - so we pulled back from that process".
A year later, the family began work to build more permanent structures onsite and on October 14, 2021, a fire broke out amid three to four dwellings, Holyoake said.
This was the "tipping point" for a renewed push to remove the family.
"They buried quite a lot of the waste from that fire," Holyoake said.
"They had also started to dig some building platforms, so that looked like there was a real intention for them to build something more substantial onsite so that was a real catalyst for us to really start pushing on the legal proceedings."
The council met with the Hills at a local marae in November 2021, just a few months after Holyoake's appointment as chief executive.
"We talked to them about leaving the land they were adamant they weren't going to," Holyoake said.
"They very much truly believed they had a right to the land ... it became obvious at that point there was no way they were going to leave so that's when we went to go down the legal process."
Holyoake said the court battle was "very much a last resort".
In March, the three family members were charged with a series of offences under the Reserves Act and pleaded guilty.
Court documents stated that none of the structures at the reserve had resource or building consent.
The documents also stated that the Hills continued to live there despite being served with notices to leave "causing considerable angst among the community".
Complaints continued to be made to the council and the public was unable to use the reserve because of the occupation, the documents said.
In June, each defendant was convicted and sentenced on all charges and ordered to pay reparation costs; Charles Hill $5000, Michelle Hill $2000 and Robert Hill $2000.
Holyoake said the council offered short-term accommodation, at the council's expense, but this was refused.
About $62,000 was spent on legal costs and about $30,000 on other costs such as staff hours.
"It's just shy of $100,000," Holyoake said.
Holyoake said the council had no choice when it came to the cost of the legal process as it had exhausted all other options.
"We had to go through a legal process to remove them, right? And when you're in the criminal court, it's going to cost you."
The HIll's belongings were collected and stored in shipping containers off-site. They were given a month to empty the containers and take what they want.
About eight skip bins of rubbish, including the burnt and buried debris, were removed and dug-up land was restored.
The land was then blessed. It is understood the family was now living elsewhere in the Western Bay. Court documents have the family's address as "no fixed abode".
In 2020, Charles Hill told the Bay of Plenty Times he and his whanau had "come back home to live on our family land".
He said he was aware some Tanners Point residents wanted them gone "but in my view, that shows a degree of prejudice and I believe people must come first over property interests".
Charles Hill said he was concerned the reserve, which he believed to be his ancestral land, was going to be turned into a tennis court or walking track around the nearby estuary.
Last month, the council met with Ngati Te Wai representatives about the reserve's future.
Holyoake said the hapu was keen on being "involved in the management of it, which we are really keen to see happen".
"The essence of the meeting was to sign a Memorandum of Understanding which will be the foundation for the relationship to work out what that looks like going forward," Holyoake said.
Ngai Te Wai representative Riki Nelson said the hapu had long considered themselves kaitiaki (guardians) of the land, which was a site of significance for the tribe.
The land had been gifted to the Crown to house a school for the community, alongside a tennis court. However, the school building has been absent for many years and the court disused.
The hapu hoped for greater access and use of the reserve for the entire community, and was in the process of trying to include local residents in the efforts to make this happen, Nelson said.
This included a sector of the community that he believed was not supportive "of any Māori involvement of anything", he said.
"For us, we want to make sure that we reach out to that community group and invite them to our marae to show we are not scary people, but we are people who have a long history and connection to this land. We are also ratepayers. We are also people of this community that volunteers and gives back to the community."
The Memorandum of Understanding was aimed at helping strengthen the hapu's relationship with the council in the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi, he said.
Nelson maintained his 2020 comments that the family occupying the reserve was there of their own volition and not representative of the hapu.