Mt Messenger delays: Public Works Act needs overhaul, mayor says

Delays securing land for the Mt Messenger bypass in Taranaki is a sign the Public Works Act needs a drastic overhaul, according to New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom.

He says the inability so far of the Crown to buy 11 hectares at the northern end of the project - which has a budget of $280 million - has cost taxpayers $83 million in the past two years alone.

In the latest of multiple legal challenges, the Court of Appeal last week found in favour of the minister of land information, supporting the process undertaken for land acquisitions for Te Ara o Te Ata - Mt Messenger Bypass project on State Highway 3.

Holdom said an affidavit Waka Kotahi / New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) provided to the courts this year reveals the cost of such challenges.

"The delay has meant we've lost another construction season and the price of the project goes up another $46 million. The documents I've seen indicate that the loss of last year's construction season and the loss of this summer's construction season have cumulatively cost New Zealand taxpayers $83 million."

At question was 11 hectares of land owned by farmers Tony and Debbie Pascoe. Holdom felt for the couple, but there was a caveat.

"I'm hugely sympathetic to the Pascoes. I love the movie The Castle and I think everybody should have the right to their day in court, and they should also have the right to appeal a court's decision if they are not happy.

"But they shouldn't have an unlimited number of rights of appeal. We are talking about six years and now 14 court cases."

He acknowledged the new highway would cut the Pascoes' farm - which was valued at $2.1 million - in half, forcing them from their home and destroying native bush.

Marie Gibbs - a long-time supporter of the Pascoes - said they were currently being offered $83,000 for the parcel of land required. She said NZTA was to blame for any cost blowouts.

"Yeah, 100 percent. I think the NZTA board are responsible for any cost to the taxpayer, because if they had waited until they had all the land they wouldn't be incurring any of these construction delay costs."

Waka Kotahi's original business case said construction would not begin until all the land needed had been acquired.

Gibbs said the Public Works Act needed to be defended, not scrapped.

"There's very few provisions in the Public Works Act at the moment to protect the landowner. So, in my view there definitely shouldn't be any of those removed. The objecting to the compulsory taking of someone's land is a fundamental protection for landowners. It's part of our constitution."

She said it had been forgotten that NZTA did not use the Act to acquire 20 hectares of settlement land from Ngāti Tama. Instead it took two years to negotiate a compensation package, which included a working farm, $7.1 million in financial redress and pest control in perpetuity over a large tract of its rohe at an estimated cost of $750,000 a year.

The initial package offered to the Pascoes for 155 hectares was $600,000 and an unspecified contribution to the building of a new home on their land at Mt Messenger.

NZTA regional manager infrastructure delivery Rob Partridge welcomed the latest court decision, which he said was a timely boost for its team building a safer, more resilient and reliable six-kilometre section of State Highway 3 in northern Taranaki.

"We are taking up every avenue to progress resolution of all outstanding legal proceedings, and gain access to the land needed at the northern end of the project as soon as possible."

Partridge said Waka Kotahi was now waiting on a High Court decision about an appeal made by the Pascoes against a May Environment Court ruling supporting the Crown's intent to acquire the 11ha block of land required for the northern end of the project.

Meanwhile, Holdom was happy Land Information Minister Chris Penk had commissioned a review of the Public Work Act and appointed an advisory panel of experts tasked with making recommendations on how to fix the system.

He said he had been interviewed by the panel and offered his two cents' worth.

"I think you could allow for a greater premium to be offered at the initial conversation with landowners. So potentially offer them a 25 or 30 percent premium over the market valuation of their property.

"But then if they're going to fight it you offer them plus 10 percent or something so that they're incentivised to settle early, they get market value and a premium.

"You've also got to have a limit to the amount of appeals. You can't have 14 different court cases over six or seven years. It's just not gonna work for New Zealand."

Gibbs also had some advice for Penk and his advisory panel.

"They should look at Mt Messenger as a case study and include all of the parties involved. You can't just look at it from one narrow perspective."

She said the panel included representatives from NZTA and the Property Group who were lawyers from the land acquiring body, and the accredited buyer perspectives.

"So, he will be getting back a very imbalanced view from those panellists."

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.