Having recently heard of a property being taken by the authorities who are supposed to be serving us, I figure it’s timely for a revisit. Historically, just from my own small circle, I’ve heard of others as well … ones I cannot share here, but publicly there was this recent example in Hamilton. See here and here also. The last link concerns Matata and the Whakatane DC from 2020.
Continue reading Land Grabs Still HappeningCategory Archives: land grab
The playbook to the corporate heist of home ownership
From truthdisorder podcast
via Camus @ X
They aren’t just buying houses. They are dismantling the American Dream, piece by piece, with a playbook so sinister it would make a Bond villain blush.
A few weeks ago, BlackRock allegedly bought 50,000 homes. Then, they sold three to themselves for more than double the price.
Your neighbor’s home value just “doubled” overnight. Congratulations. Now you can’t afford the property taxes to live there anymore.
This isn’t an accident. It’s a calculated corporate heist. Here is their step-by-step playbook:
STEP 1: THE HUNT They use algorithms and vast data to identify stable, middle-class neighborhoods with untapped “growth potential.” These are your tree-lined streets, your good schools, your community.
STEP 2: THE BLITZKRIEG They show up with unlimited corporate cash. They don’t need mortgages. They offer 20%, 30%, even 50% above asking price. Imagine you list your home. A young family makes an offer. Then a corporate entity swoops in and says, “We’ll pay $100k more, in cash.” The family never stood a chance. The community is gutted before the “For Sale” signs even come down.
STEP 3: THE SQUEEZE Regular families are now permanently priced out. How do you compete with a bottomless wallet? You don’t. The dream of homeownership is extinguished on your own street.
STEP 4: THE ILLUSION Once they control a critical mass of homes, the real magic happens. They sell a handful of properties to shell companies they already own. It’s a game of three-card monte, but with the roof over your head.
STEP 5: THE NEW “REALITY” Those fake, inflated sales to themselves are now logged in public records. Suddenly, a $300,000 home is “worth” $700,000. This becomes the new, fraudulent “market rate.”
STEP 6: THE FINAL NAIL – THE TAX TRAP This is where they force you out. Your property taxes are reassessed and TRIPLE based on their fake sales. The elderly couple on a fixed income, who paid off their home 20 years ago, can’t afford $15,000 a year in taxes. The young family that scraped together a down payment is now house-poor.
THE ULTIMATE INSULT: YOU WILL OWN NOTHING, AND YOU WILL BE HAPPY TO RENT FROM THEM. They created the problem. They priced you out. And now, they become your landlord. The mortgage payment would have been $1,800. Your new rent to them is $2,500. You are now a permanent tenant in your own neighborhood, funding the very machine that evicted you.
This isn’t capitalism. It’s a hostile takeover of the foundational pillar of American life. It’s financial warfare against the middle class.
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2M Views
The Guardian Promotes Stealing British Farmers’ Land. Says It’s Not ‘Confiscation’ But ‘Asking For A Share’
From The WinePress @ substack
“Farmers have hoarded land for too long. Inheritance tax will bring new life to rural Britain,” says the paper.
The following report was first published on winepressnews.com on November 18th, 2024. The following report is by Will Hutton from The Guardian:
One of the baleful dimensions of our times is the way that the conversation about what constitutes the good society is framed by the rich and their interests. A conception of the common good withers; instead it is replaced by the existential importance of private wealth, private interests and private ownership to societal health. Nowhere is this more exposed than in the debate over taxation, and in particular the taxation of inherited wealth – as the debate over the past fortnight has dramatised.
Half a million people die every year. Under the reforms to inheritance tax relief on agricultural land proposed in the budget, about 500 individuals who inherit land worth more than £2m (£3m if they were married to the deceased) will join the rest of society and have inheritance tax levied on their bequest – albeit at half the rate, with an enlarged exemption and 10 years to pay it, concessions not made to the rest of us. How fortunate and privileged are they?
Yet ever since, the National Farmers Union, Historic Houses, the Tory party, the rightwing media and, inevitably, Elon Musk have behaved as if the move represents a new communist dictatorship. Edward Stanley, the 19th Earl of Derby, denizen of Merseyside’s Knowsley Hall where his family has lived since 1385, represented their united view. “Taking 20% of a business away every generation is just a shockingly awful concept for a government that wants growth,” he told the Financial Times. Positioning himself as a wealth-creating small business, he insisted it “would kill off farming and heritage businesses” like his. According to the lobby, a new age of Jacobin terror has been unleashed – production will collapse, rural Britain will be devastated, and all for a trivial amount of money. Rarely have 500 very privileged people got so hysterical – and commanded so much attention.
There is no acknowledgment of the potential wider benefits that go beyond the non-trivial contribution the tax will make to relieving the crisis in public services. The hoarding of land that has gone on since the bung was introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, which has so steadily driven up land prices and farmers’ rents, will at last be checked as some of the larger estates are obliged to sell parcels of land to pay inheritance tax, as they did before 1984 without the world falling in, rather than be enabled to own it in perpetuity. Young farmers, now increasingly crowded out of the market, will get a chance to buy land: there is the prospect of a levelling off, even a fall, in farm rents. New life and ideas will be brought to the rural economy as innovative, energetic farmers enter the market – and production even increases.
As importantly, a key principle that has underpinned all human societies – that we have a right to share in the bounty of inherited assets – will be reaffirmed. Whether ancient Rome or feudal Europe, societies have taken the view that just because an individual got lucky and came out of the right womb, they are not entitled to inherit everything without paying some levy or tribute on their inherited wealth. After all, wealth is enjoyed in a societal context and society made a contribution to the existence of the wealth. Of course society should share in the transfer, if only in a minor way, and the principle should extend to everyone, with as few exceptions as possible. Far from a death tax, it is a life tax on undeserved good luck.
Why so much fuss? Part of the problem is that rural Britain has never escaped the cultural trappings of feudalism. It is now largely forgotten, but in 1883 the Conservative party, to fight the rise of progressive liberalism and its emergent outrider socialism, set up the mass membership Primrose League, whose adherents formally accepted the vital role that the “landed estates of the realm” played in an idea of imperial, free-enterprise Britain. It was a direct response to William Gladstone’s creation of “succession duty” in 1881 codifying the longstanding practice of levying a duty on the transfer of landed assets – and the principle had to be fought to the last. Within a decade its members, incredibly, outnumbered trade unionists.
The Earl of Derby speaks to that Primrose League tradition, arguing that his family is less a 650-year beneficiary of the baronial carve-up of England after the Norman conquest and more an employment-generating small business. Selling a little of the estate to pay inheritance tax is off limits; instead, the assumption is that the tax will have to be paid from the business’s cashflow, to preserve the estate in perpetuity – hence the over-egged predictions of devastation. In the wider economy, the creation of perpetual monopolies would be widely criticised as not only unfairly entrenching wealth and power but stifling the process of creative churn that is at the heart of economic vitality. Britain’s landed estates are excused from the same criticism.
It is a political and cultural achievement that must be challenged today with the same energy it was challenged by Liberal leaders in the run-up to the First World War. The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, calling for the government to suspend the measure, forgets Gladstone’s succession duty, William Harcourt’s introduction of estates duty in 1894 and David Lloyd George’s imaginative plans to break up the monopoly of land ownership. Yet, while the non-royal dukes might no longer have automatic membership of the House of Lords, they still own as much of Britain as they did then. Davey should not cosy up to Musk and co, inflaming the hysteria, but rather back Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves who, to their credit, are holding the line.
But Labour needs to win the argument, and to be convincing that argument must be made from first principles. Inheritance tax springs from the universally held belief that society has the right to share when wealth is transferred on death as a matter of justice. This is not confiscation, especially if the lion’s share of the bequest is left intact. It is asking for a share. The principle should apply to all estates and to everyone. It is fair. It limits the entrenchment of wealth and privilege. It breaks up monopoly, especially of land. It enlarges the tax base. It gives the next generation a chance. Any other argument is the special pleading of plutocrats – and should be seen as such.
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AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Job 24:2 Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. [3] They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. [4] They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
“Asking to share?” It kind of sounds like, ‘Oh, I’m not robbing people, I’m just asking for people’s money.’ Yes, this absolutely IS confiscation: this has communism written all over it.
The Guardian is nothing but a nutty progressive outlet that peddles all sorts of ridiculous, globalist garbage. What this Hutton guy is promoting is plainly communism. How dare families pass down their generational land and wealth? That must sequestered by the state so only the preferred class can have it and subsidize it, so these types of people think.
Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
Proverbs 19:14 House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD.
This is a poorly masqueraded propaganda piece to justify the government stealing more of private citizens’ land so the government can consolidate more of it. This is what has been happening in countries such as The Netherlands and Ireland already.
Thanks for reading The WinePress News! This post is public so feel free to share it.
Photo Credit: The Winepress
A NZ couple’s battle with incompetence, cover-ups, outright lies and legal bullying
A battle funded by unsuspecting tax payers… another land grab?
From the Daily Telegraph
The Americans say “You can’t fight City Hall”. When you take on your council, Big Bureaucracy always wins because it is not a fair game.
Not only do they set the rules, they are the referee as well.
In central governments, the average worker is a nobody. Managers might have influence in their own departments, but not in others. In local government, people are more interconnected. This makes the problem worse. You could appeal to your elected representatives, but they are more likely to know the key people, work with them regularly, and need them in the future. You will be sacrificed for the ongoing relationship.
It is a world-wide issue. Here is a typical example from New Zealand, that has all the hallmarks of a classic battle with incompetence, cover-ups, outright lies and legal bullying funded by the deep pockets of unsuspecting taxpayers. “David” is Murray and Margaret Shaw, while “Goliath” is the Hamilton City Council.
The Shaws are retired, and have devoted a couple of decades to creating a beautiful nature sanctuary on the outskirts of the city. There are ponds, trees and an abundance of native birds, safe from the city where pet cats often kill chicks, and street lights dazzle the owls at night.
The council has spent the same couple of decades planning suburban growth to devour the surrounding land. Thousands of pages of reports and studies gathered dust on shelves as the wheels of bureaucracy turned slowly. But a sudden offer in 2017 of $280m in government funding changed that. The politicians needed target dates for each stage (unsurprisingly connected to election timetables), so City Hall was under time pressure to deliver.
READ AT THE LINK
Northland protested yesterday at the Govt/Cncl’s proposed UN Agenda 21 SNA plan (another not-so-well-disguised land grab)
This is a UN Agenda 21 (now Agenda 2030) biodiversity/sustainable development plan. Basically, another not-so-well-disguised land grab. Another dishonoring of the Treaty. For more info on SNAs and Agenda 21 go here.
“FNDC has sent 8000 letters to its residents identifying up to 100 percent of some properties to be classified as SNAs of biodiversity worth. This will mean the introduction of major limits on what can be done with this land into the future.” RNZ article
Video courtesy of Michael Feyen @ fb: watch at the link below the image:
CLICK ON THIS LINK: https://www.facebook.com/feyenfor.horowhenua/videos/3036838023212737/
Photo credits: video screen shots, Michael Feyen
Land Grab in Progress: The UN’s Agenda 21 evident in councils’ staggered eviction of people from their lands
This is Agenda 21, now Agenda 2030. Plain and simple. ‘They’ plan to own all property. To get that in a simple clip watch this one.
To enlarge on that obtain Rosa Koire’s book Behind the Green Mask. Rosa has many videos on YT (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPUJcxSKTOKaz5tVGfqDmKQ/videos) also explaining the agenda. She spotted it (as have many) in the course of her work which happened to be dealing with land.
Continue reading Land Grab in Progress: The UN’s Agenda 21 evident in councils’ staggered eviction of people from their lands
Ihumātao | How Fletchers Collected a Waiver Card in ‘Neo-Feudal Monopoly – The Ihumātao New Zealand Edition’
More truth you won’t be finding in mainstream media … a long read on Ihumātao. EWR
From snoopman.net
In this exposé, The Snoopman reveals Fletcher Building Ltd was granted waivers that lay bare the institutional racism of the Crown, the Council and the Courts. Not only were ministerial waivers required for a crucial breach of the Overseas Investment Act to get the Ihumātao land deal approved before the conditional sale agreement time-window ended.
With official documents – some heavily redacted – a picture of collusion is shown to have taken place between the Auckland Council, the Overseas Investment Office, the Key Ministry Cabinet, the Environment Court and the Ardern Coalition Government. Across the governance system, a horrendous story emerges of avoidance to conduct a serious sustained investigation to establish why exactly the bona fide tangata whenua of Ihumātao were stonewalled in their attempts to assert customary rights, while the ‘master plan’ of transnational bank-owned Fletcher Building was fast-tracked.
The contrived ignorance posturing extends to three Māori Labour Caucus members of the Ardern Coalition Government whom knew at least as far back as September 2015 that the Ihumātao Peninsula was never Te Kawerau ā Maki iwi’s traditional ancestral lands. This means the Ardern Coalition Government enjoined itself in the contrived ignorance game of the Auckland Council, the Courts and other Crown agencies whom pretended that Te Warena Taua represented the local iwi of Ihumātao.
Fletchers Collected a Waiver Card in Neo-Feudal Monopoly game
Fletcher Building has maintained throughout the Ihumātao land dispute that every move it made was within the law. It would be more accurate to say the law had their back.
To get the Ōruarangi housing development at Ihumātao through a significant regulatory hoop, a joint waiver was required by two Key Ministry Crown Ministers in early September 2014 to over-ride breaches to the Overseas Investment Act of 2005.
This special treatment reflects the institutional racism endemic in the Crown, the Auckland Council and the Courts since all forums have overlooked the downplaying, dismissal and denigration of local iwi and hapū interests in the land – as The Snoopman showed in his exposé “Te Warena Taua – The mandated kaumātua who authored his own use-by-date?”
The Wallace-Blackwell Family company, Gavin H Wallace Limited, owner of ‘the Wallace Block’ – as the highly contested land at Ihumātao is locally known – failed to advertise the farm land on the open market prior to sale to the transnational construction company, Fletcher Building.
The Overseas Investment Office required a waiver because the Overseas Investment Act was breached since sales of rural properties located adjacent to ‘sensitive land’ such as historic reserves are meant to be advertised for sale in the 12-month period preceding an application to approve a purchase by an overseas buyer.
Breach of Overseas Investment Act Approved: Two Crown Ministers waivered the requirement in section 16 of the Overseas Investment Act 2005, that farm land be advertised for sale on the open market in the 12 month period prior to sale to an overseas buyer.
READ MORE
![Ihumātao: The Fletcher-Rockefeller-Rothschild Connection & the Crown’s Crimes Act Breaches [Letter to NZ PM Ardern]](https://envirowatchnz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ihumataofletcherrockefellerrothschidconnectiontitleimage-3.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
Ihumātao: The Fletcher-Rockefeller-Rothschild Connection & the Crown’s Crimes Act Breaches [Letter to NZ PM Ardern]
Excellent post here from Snoopman.net …. some truths on Ihumātao. Media predictably play the race card on this one big time but then what better card to cover up the facts? EWR
From snoopman.net.nz
“This three-page letter calls out New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her continuance of successive governments’ maintenance of a Neo-Feudal economic warfare paradigm inflicted on New Zealanders in 1984. Steve Edwards cites The Snoopman’s “Deep History of Ihumātao – The Fletcher-Rockefeller-Rothschild Dynasties Connection” — which reveals the links between Fletcher Building Limited’s corporate ancestor, Fletcher Challenge, and the Neo-Feudal Siege of New Zealand that occurred from 1984 to 1994. This economic warfare reset was inflicted to make New Zealand into a ‘Switzerland of the South Pacific’ Utopia for centimillionaires, billionaires and transnational corporations to exploit, undermine Māori land reform and sovereignty aspirations and replace democratic governance with a high-tech Neo-Feudal technocratic jurisdiction, he argues.
Edwards sketches the links between the David Rockefeller-chaired Council on Foreign Relations, his Trilateral Commission brainchild and his Neo-Feudal cronies at the global policy shaping conclave, the Bilderberg Group, and their machinations to capitalize on the 1973-1974 Oil Price Shocks engineered by the Rockefeller-Kissinger-Bilderberger Nexus to weaken resistance to the coming Neo-Feudal siege of entire economies. Ultimately, the ‘Unitary Plan’ which embroiled Ihumātao in the Auckland Council’s Special Housing Area zoning for Fletcher Building’s intensive residential housing project, was part of a long-range scheme dating back to the 1980’s to re-make Auckland as a World City. The forging of huge cities suits the exploitative business models of transnational corporations, whom require Neo-Feudal jurisdictions to facilitate high capital mobility, organize public debt-funded infrastructure, and accommodate large pools of excess labour.
READ MORE
ANOTHER Environmental Catastrophe caused by CORRUPTION (right here in NZ)
Another Agenda 21 land grab? Stand over tactics, bullying, night visits with flashlights … disturbing …
‘This video proves that New Zealand’s “Clean, Green” status is nothing more than a HOAX.’
Sign the petition today to save this pristine valley. Thank you.
https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/no-mt-messenger-bypass-save-mangapepeke-valley
Driven by Greedy, Corrupt Corporations:
“This is truly an inspiring documentary which highlights how greed and monetary value can destroy, not only the lives of others, but entire ecosystems filled with life. As a society we have taken far too much from our planet, and this documentary proves that New Zealand’s “Clean, Green” image is nothing more than a hoax.
Humans rely on the natural environment for everything we have. Without it, we WILL die. New Zealand’s unique, endemic species are depopulating by the second, with extinction just around the corner. How much must we destroy until we come to this realisation?
Do we want our children, and our children’s children to hear the birdsong, explore native bush, and to continue generations on our planet?
It is ‘developments’ like these which make this future impossible.
It takes 30 seconds to sign the petition.
If you love our beautiful nation, support this cause and make a difference!
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga ka ngaro te iwi.
Without foresight or vision the people will be lost.”
-Anastasia Collier
An Ihumātao kuia’s heartfelt plea to Jacinda Adern
The ‘mamae’, the pain passed down the generations from land theft & genocide. See yesterday’s post on the shady and corrupt histories you were not privy to in your childhood education. Our Crown all complicit. You were taught, like me, that those wars were ‘Māori’ Wars’. Like the similar ‘Indian Wars’. And this rape & pillage is still going on today by the same perpetrators. And small wonder the option to teach about the land wars in NZ schools was recently denied. Too much has been hidden. Too much at stake. It’s time the truth of these histories came out. Thanks to this dear kuia for speaking out, and to the very long line of people historically whose voices have fallen on deaf ears. The video below is from the #ProtectIhumatao kaitiaki Youtube channel.
EWR
Published on Jul 31, 2019
Deep History of Ihumātao: The Colonial BNZ Connection
Histories that of course we were not privy to when we were growing up in NZ or anywhere else. And we were told they were the ‘Maori Wars’ (like the Indian Wars etc etc etc)… strategically named by the star fomenters of wars… who were after LAND & RESOURCES.” And so down through the years the mythical versions of history persisted & continue today to create strife because folk think they are the truth. It’s long past time we heard what really happened. EWR
From snoopman.net.nz
The Bank of New Zealand brokered finance of £3 million from the Imperial Government to escalate the New Zealand Wars. With a chronic case of ‘terrible twos’, the BNZ also bankrolled the Colonial Government’s overdraft while war was waged on Māori in the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Whanganui.
Dispatch from Ihumātao #003
By Snoopman
Finance to Escalate the ‘Maori Wars’
Three weeks after militarist Freemason Bro. George Grey’s ‘homecoming’ for a second term as governor, an ambitious new bank, with initial capital of £500,000 in £10 pound shares, cashed in on colonial parochialism by calling itself the Bank of New Zealand.1
The Bank of New Zealand – which was established by Royal Charter and Colonial Government legislation in 1861 – brokered finance of £3 million from the Imperial Government to escalate the New Zealand Wars.2
The First Taranaki War of 1860-1861, which had ended inconclusively, was bruising for the egos of the Taranaki settlers and the Colonial Government, whom had expected to inflict a short, sharp shock to defeat ‘the rebellious natives’ with the help of the British Royal Navy and British Army.3 The Taranaki settlers, the Colonial Government and New Zealand Freemasonry had conspired to make the coastal village of Waitara a flashpoint to trigger the Taranaki War – as The Snoopman showed in his exposé essay, “The Masonic New Zealand Wars: Freemasonry as a Secret Mechanism of Imperial Conquest During the ‘Native Troubles’”.4 The settlement of New Plymouth lacked a natural harbour, while 10 miles north, the village at Waitara had a river suitable for a port and fertile fields and gardens belonging to Te Āti Awa iwi – whom were callously targetted with what The Snoopman has termed a wedge of war strategy.
To continue to wage the escalation of the ‘Maori Wars’, the New Zealand Colonial Government needed money. The Bank of New Zealand quickly became the colonial government’s banker.
READ MORE
https://snoopman.net.nz/2019/08/02/deep-history-of-ihumatao-the-colonial-bnz-connection/
ESSENTIAL READING ALSO ON TOPIC:
https://snoopman.net.nz/2017/04/25/the-masonic-new-zealand-wars/
Header image: envirowatchrangitikei
CONCERT – ‘Protect Ihumātao’ (Sat. July 27th, 11am til late)
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei marks the 40th anniversary of the Bastion Point eviction
And the land grabs continue….if you’re not up to speed with the shameful Bastion Point story here is a NZ OnScreen documentary … information you won’t have learned at school:
Bastion Point – The Untold Story
Further you can read more at the waitangitribunal website:
The loss of the Orakei block
Also, from ngatiwhatuaorakei’s website (go there for pertinent commemoration info):
BASTION POINT OCCUPATION TO BE COMMEMORATED ON THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY
Forty years ago, after 506 days of occupation, protesters faced off with members of the police, armed forces and the government over plans to build luxury housing on Ngāti Whātua ancestral land at Takaparawhau/Bastion Point, resulting in 222 arrests.
On Friday 25 May, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei will mark the 40th anniversary of what has been called a defining moment in New Zealand history.
READ MORE
And from Scoop:
“Forty years ago, after 506 days of occupation, protesters faced off with members of the police, armed forces and the government over plans to build luxury housing on Ngāti Whātua ancestral land at Takaparawhau/Bastion Point, resulting in 222 arrests.”
On Friday 25 May, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei will mark the 40th anniversary of what has been called a defining moment in New Zealand history.
This year, the commemoration honours those who took part in the occupation; providing an opportunity to further reflect on the efforts of those who strove for Treaty settlement and a better future for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.
The stand at Bastion Point is a prevailing benchmark for protest in Aotearoa, which led to the first successful retrospective claim hearing at the Waitangi Tribunal. It is a move that Joe Hawke, leader of the 1977 protest, has never regretted.
“I went onto the Point, not to invite an arrest, but to arrest a wrong, and 40 years on, all of Ngāti Whātua are benefiting from that stand”, he said.
Joe will be part of the events planned for Friday 25 May that commemorate that struggle, foster reconciliation and re-affirm Ngāti Whātua’s footprint on the land in Auckland.
READ MORE:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1805/S00099/bastion-point-occupation-to-be-commemorated.htm
Matata existing use rights cull one step closer after Bay of Plenty Regional Council decision – another Agenda 21/30 land grab?
This looks like Agenda 21/30. Land grabs in other places also. Search other articles in ‘categories’. See all of our Agenda pages at the main menu, also see Local Govt Watch pages also at the main menu. Similar happening in the Christchurch rebuild. Note the magic word ‘retreat’? All too common now (as @ June 2023) five years on from this land grab. EWNZ
Photo: CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF
Matata landowners have been left in limbo after a proposal to strip existing use rights over safety concerns was accepted by Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
The landmark decision will see 34 houses and sections lose the right to inhabit their property as part of a voluntary retreat. It is believed to be the first time the Resource Management Act has been used in this manner.
Whakatane District Council lobbied Bay of Plenty Regional Council to consider a plan change that will prohibit residential activity in the Awatarariki Fanhead at Matatā after March 2021. The plan change was suggested after $1.2 million was spent investigating how to mitigate safety concerns to residents unsuccessfully.
The plan change will prohibit all residential activity in the affected area.
READ MORE:
* A town damned becasue a dam was never built
* Anger at forced acquisition of 34 Bay of Plenty properties
Impacted residents say they will fight the plan change through legal means.
“We don’t want this to end up in court but when you back people into a corner they fight,” resident spokesman Rick Whalley said.
“That’s where we are now. We’re backed into the corner and we have to fight. They have taken away everything we have. We can’t sell. We can’t get loans. What other option do we have?”
Safety concerns began after a flood event in 2005 left houses destroyed after rubble barrelled down the swollen Awatarariki river.
WDC investigated mitigation options including the construction of a wire net to catch debris and protect the town.
In 2007 residents were given the all clear to return to their homes after the WDC deemed the wire-net solution the likely course of action.
However, WDC principal planner Shane McGhie said the decision to build the wire-net was reviewed in 2012.
“They said they have looked at it and it just wouldn’t work,” he said.
Home owners were given indicative offers for their properties from WDC staff with many residents turning up their noses at the proposed prices.
Marilyn Pearce lived in Matata during the 2005 floods and said if
they were told then it was unsafe to return they would have accepted it and moved on.
“If they told us then we couldn’t have gone back, we would have listened,” she said.
“They have set us up to fail.”
With the plan change accepted by BOPRC a hearing panel will be established to hear submissions at a future date.
PHOTO: Wikipedia
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