Residents reject city slip offer

Three units at No 1 Mulberry Place, Glenfield, are threatened after a slip that occurred in July last year. Photo / Dean Purcell

Three North Shore home owners are sticking by their refusal to allow work on a land slip in the gully below them, and are threatening to sue for damages.

After the July 2008 slip, owners of three threatened units at No 1 Mulberry Place, Glenfield, asked the North Shore City Council to accept liability and buy their homes at the pre-slip value.

But the council instead put forward its soil engineers' plan to stabilise a condemned building platform where two homes were destroyed and to protect adjacent properties at No 1 and No 3.

Last week, the council broke a year's silence on negotiations to confirm it had been unable to reach agreement with three of six affected residents.

Talks had ended after the owners at No 1 refused permission for final work on their property.

Council chief executive John Brockies said the council had no liability for the landslip.

It had tried to help residents by offering them geotechnical expertise and take advantage of work that the council needed to do to stabilise roads and drains.

The driveway for the units at No 1 was above the area where slip stabilisation work included deep drainage and a "soldier" pile wall sunk 8m down into the subsoil.

Mr Brockies said groundworks offered to the residents would cost ratepayers about $400,000.

They would now be left to make their own arrangements, employing their own geotechnical engineers and doing work using their Earthquake Commission compensation payments.

The council would seek resource consent for the work at a public hearing run by independent commissioners.

Any approval could be appealed against in the Environment Court.

A significant amount of money could be wasted on legal costs should this matter end up before the courts.

"This money would be better spent on carrying out physical works to stabilise the affected area for everyone's benefit."

No 1 residents' spokesman David Thornton said they had no faith in the council's measures to prevent further slips.

"The council is going for a partial fix of the problem and won't do anything about the land behind the units where the slope is moving and still threatens all three.

"All houses need to be removed from the area and the loose soil removed."

Mr Thornton said the council's offer was rejected because it came with a condition that residents would not sue for costs, damages or reparations.

They would now test the council's claim of no liability with a civil court case.

"These people are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by council - their houses have devalued from $350,000 each to $50,000 each and nothing was their fault."