Freedom riders have law on their side

"Freedom riders" in a land access dispute on the South Wairarapa coast have the law on their side, according to consultants.

In research for the Wairarapa coastal strategies project, Becca Consultants say no landowner can lock a gate on a legal road.

The Wairarapa coastal strategies project involves Greater Wellington, the regional council, the two Wairarapa iwi and the three Wairarapa district councils.

Ngapotiki Station owner Trino Koers has locked the gate across a track which leads to a surf spot and Department of Conservation recreation reserve south of White Rock.

Mr Koers said he had blocked access to stop vandalism and was charging selected surfers $100 for a key.

The Four-Wheel-Drive Association and the Akatarawa Recreation Access Action Committee plan to reopen the route with a "freedom ride" along the track this Sunday, marking out what it says is a legal unformed paper road through Ngapotiki Station.

The regional council's coastal maps have a legal road marked as passing through Mr Koers' land and the public access activists said they would cut the gate locks if Mr Koers did not open them.

Mr Koers said this week that he would block the track with earthmoving machinery and would spike the road if they attempted to drive through his property.

Now a paragraph in the Wairarapa coastal strategy technical report on access and recreation provides a legal opinion on the dispute.

The report by Becca Consultants says the public have "all the rights that a formed legal road offers" on a paper road.

The report says farmers can use the roads for grazing "but legally the farmer cannot prevent someone using the roadway, nor should they fence across the road".

"Gates are acceptable following consultation with local authority, provided they are not locked.

"In some cases (on the Wairarapa coast) unformed legal roads provide access to the coastal environment. Unformed legal roads are physically undefined access ways of public land in rural areas. They were included on historical survey plans to be roads, but for various reasons have never been formed," the document says.

"They are legal public reserves where the public has all rights that a formed legal road offers, unless a bylaw is formed to regulate use. Thus dogs are allowed, as are mountain bikes, motor bikes, four-wheel-drive vehicles and horses."

Andy Cockroft, a spokesman for the group planning to test the law and survey the road, said the freedom drive was still on.

- NZPA