No right of access

Published date11 May 2022
Publication titleWest Coast Farming Times, The
Sometimes there are exceptions to that, such as 'right of way' easements, including esplanade strips and access strips over the farm. But normally people cannot walk or ride across a farm unless the farmer permits them to do so

Another exception to this is unformed legal roads. An unformed legal road, informally called a paper road, is a parcel of land that has been legally designated as a road but has not been constructed. There is no pegging and often no formed track, gravelling, metalling, or grading. But it is still public land, not part of the adjoining farmland or forest.

There are over 50,000km of unformed legal roads in New Zealand. That's over 25 times the length of State highway 1 from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Most of them are in rural communities. For instance, Southland estimates it has nearly 5000km of unformed legal roads and it's probably a similar amount for the West Coast, but Tamaki Makaurau Auckland only has 140km. Many unformed legal roads make their way to and along our rivers, to and along the coast, and to public conservation land. The best way to find these roads is on the Walking Access Commission's digital maps.

The critical point to note is that, although it may have been incorporated into the farm or forest operation, an unformed legal road is not part of the adjacent farm or forest property. It is a separate public road, and, from a legal perspective, no different from a formed road. Ownership of roads is usually vested in the local council (and occasionally in Waka Kotahi NZTA in locations where it provides for the state highways). Councils also manage the roads, formed or unformed.

Federated Mountain Clubs recently launched a campaign called "Same as State highway 1". The campaign aims to raise awareness of the status of these roads so that trampers and other outdoor recreationists can use them to connect their journeys.

Most unformed legal roads are 20m wide but sometimes they are wider, even over 100m in some places, particularly along the coast where they were set aside for public access. In theory, people have the right to use them on foot, on horse, or in vehicles, without permission from the adjoining farm owner or anyone else.

This may come as a surprise to some farmers and adjacent landholders. Often, they have been managing the land which makes up the unformed legal road as a part of their farm, perhaps incorporating it into paddocks.

Farmers can put gates or cattle stops across these unformed roads for livestock...

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