The Whakatāne District Council is working through a priority list of 22 road legalisations, to be funded from an annual budget of $50,000.

Reporting to the Council’s Projects and Services Committee last week, Transportation Manager Martin Taylor outlined the “often complex” legal process involved and indicated that the land purchase cost of projects identified to date was likely to be in the order of $250,000.

The legalisations are required to remedy historic road alignment issues, which typically arose during the original road construction, when alignments sometimes followed the logic of the terrain, rather than being confined strictly to the road reserve.

“Councils throughout New Zealand have inherited similar issues, which usually come to light when an owner is planning to sell the property, or there is a neighbourhood dispute over boundaries or access,” Mr Taylor said.

Completing a road legalisation project can take several years, depending on the complexity of the situation and the willingness of property owners to resolve the matter. Mr Taylor said the current list of projects was “by no means a definitive”, and it was likely that additional projects would continue to be added.