Railway network manager ONTRACK will be firm but fair in its dealings with land owners who occupy railway land. However, it warns them they can expect to find their fences and structures relocated if they refuse to negotiate an agreement.
ONTRACK manages 19,000 hectares of railway throughout New Zealand, most of it along the rail corridor. Significant amounts of land are used, legally or illegally, by people whose land adjoins the railway.
ONTRACK Asset and Corridor Manager Frazer Tweedie says administration of land occupation in the past has been haphazard.
“The peppercorn rental where a farmer grazed his stock for a nominal amount or residential land owners’ gardens expanded a few metres onto the corridor without anybody noticing, are common occurrences.
“We’re not making ourselves popular by knocking on their doors and asking them to enter into a proper agreement with us at a proper market rate.
“People who’ve paid a dollar for their lease for many years, tell us to ‘b…… off’. Others complain that because they’ve been looking after the land, we should be paying them.
“The fact is, things had to change. ONTRACK is a State Owned Enterprise with an obligation to operate in a commercial manner. Under the Rating Act we now have to pay rates on much of our land and we also have greater health and safety responsibilities for anything that may happen on the land.
“If the people who are resisting our requests had people occupying their own land, I very much doubt they’d be letting them have it for nothing.
“In short, we need to know who is occupying our land and we need them to enter into a legal agreement with us to occupy it. If they don’t want to do that, they must be prepared to withdraw from the land and take with them any property they may have on the land.
“Most land holders understand the position and have entered into agreements. They understand that the rentals we are asking (in the case of residential encroachments less than $200 a year) are reasonable – on a par of lower than most comparable local authority rentals.
“Unfortunately a small minority have rejected our approach. We have been very patient. We’ve given them additional time and multiple warnings. We now have no option but to physically relocate their fences and property.
”Mr Tweedie said ONTRACK is being courteous but firm in its dealings with people who dispute their obligation to pay for railway land they occupy.