In 2021, Alistair Broad and Hilary Calvert — a former Dunedin city councillor — applied for resource consent to subdivide land in Oturehua to create five titles from what had been four to allow separate lots for themselves and their three daughters. The remaining title will continue to be leased to the presbyterian church.
The dispute centred on an access road to neighbouring Inverlair Lodge, part of which was formed across a corner of their land about 15 years ago.
However, in June last year, after the council discovered the access road to Inverlair Lodge was non-complying, a CODC staff member told them they would first have to allow an easement across their land to give the lodge’s owners legal access.
Despite their protests the demand was illegal, they were told the council would not sign off their subdivision, or process the Manders’ building consent application, until the issue was resolved.
In their statement of claim, the couples said the subdivision consent had no relevance to the lodge’s access issue, and the council staff member made a "false representation".
The staff member — who no longer works for the council — also threatened to tell Inverlair Lodge’s owners the couple would block access to the property.
Endeavours to resolve the issue were unsuccessful with the couple filing proceedings in the High Court against the council, alleging the council abused its powers by refusing to allow a building consent to be lodged until a right of way was given for land which was unrelated to the subdivision.
With court proceedings settled and the issue resolved, newly appointed CODC chief executive Peter Kelly acknowledged council decision-making was wrong in this case and that it had acted incorrectly.
He apologised to Mr Broad, Ms Calvert and family for the stress and inconvenience it caused.
In a statement issued by CODC today, Mr Kelly said “We were wrong to require an easement for the neighbouring property and should have accepted and processed the building consent.”
He regretted that the actions had the effect of improperly coercing the applicants to give a right of way over their property to the third party by refusing to process a building consent application unless, and until the right of way was given.
Mr Kelly said he was committed to changing practices within council prevent such mistakes from happening again.
CODC would be paying $50,000 to the applicants to reimburse them for their legal costs and $40,000 in compensation.
Speaking on behalf of the plaintiffs, Hilary Calvert noted the ‘‘prompt attention’’ Mr Kelly gave to resolving the issue upon his arrival at the council.
She was also ‘‘heartened’’ by the commitment Mr Kelly has made to work with her to understand and correct the deficiencies in process which allowed the mistakes to be made.
"Sometimes you can and should fight city hall," she said.
- This story was amended on December 22. The original story said the matter had been settled in the High Court.
