City council inaction

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Willie123

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#322705 14-Sep-2025 14:16

I have a problem trying to resolve my driveway access with the council and am interested to see if anyone can offer some advice.

When the council re-formed the road outside my suburban house they screwed up the camber, and now anything other than a high clearance 4WD bottoms out and can’t get in or out without getting damaged. It’s been 15 months since I first submitted my complaint and they’ve just reconfigured the footpath this week but it hasn’t changed anything. The problem is the road, with the outside metre angling down to the gutter at about 10 degrees. The recommended road design says camber should be 3 degrees.

I’m getting old and need to move to somewhere more manageable but this unresolved problem has been stopping me doing that. No one wants to buy a house with a garage they can’t access.

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Hmm, what to write...
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#3414864 14-Sep-2025 14:41

The standards for the crossing will be in the district plan. It will say something like

“Vehicle access shall be designed to minimise longitudinal gradients; and the maximum
change in gradient without transition for all vehicular access shall be no greater than 1 in 8 for summit grade changes or 1 in 6.7 for sag grade changes.”

Further, AS/NZS 2890 Section 2.6.2 requires that gradient changes across a footpath and within the property shall be designed and checked with appendix C to ensure vehicles will not scrape their undersides when negotiating them. Appendix C1 provides a Ground clearance template vehicle “ B85” for domestic driveways.

You could measure the cross section of the crossing and show that the the B85 will scape its underside... although it seems fairly obvious in your case

Send a letter saying it does not meet the current or previous district plan, is not to standard, is not fit for purpose, and damages vehicles.

They will probably come out and say they have measured it and it is to standard... Call them out and ask for the drawing they did to check the gradients.

Matthew

eracode

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#3414867 14-Sep-2025 14:51

If direct approaches to the Council don’t get you anywhere reasonably quickly and easily from here, you could get your lawyer to send them a letter demanding proper action.

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#3414868 14-Sep-2025 14:54

Calling/emailing a councillor can sometimes have similar effect.

mdooher

Hmm, what to write...
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#3414869 14-Sep-2025 14:57

SomeoneSomewhere:

Calling/emailing a councillor can sometimes have similar effect.

It is election time after all

Matthew

tweake

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#3414871 14-Sep-2025 15:04

keep track of all actions. not uncommon for councils to pull the old "we have no record of any complaints".

the all of the above fails, talk to the media. make a story about it and if you can include who did the work. often they will flick the problem off to the contractor to fix and they will drag their heals until you give up.

mattwnz

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#3414919 14-Sep-2025 15:23

Email the CEO and mayor about it. If it was fine before the work then it is something they co should be able to fix and within a reasonable period of time.

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eracode

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#3415009 14-Sep-2025 22:12

I have no real knowledge here but I can imagine that getting a section of road re-contoured may be nowhere near as simple as it may sound - bureaucratically at least. The work was probably done by a contractor - not by the council itself. There could be arguments (between the council and the contractor) as to whether the council’s specs complied with the District Plan and/or about whether the contractor built the road to comply with the specs. And an argument about who’s going to pay for the re-work.

Councils have protocols and policies that they need to follow. A new contract may be needed with new specs. This may require preparation of all the necessary docs to get council funding approval, new engineering and geotech reports etc - not to mention ensuring that there are enough cones available.

It’s likely to be a headache for the council and not something on which they’re going to acquiesce easily.

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Handle9

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#3415011 14-Sep-2025 22:55

@benoire this would seem to be in your area of expertise.

mattwnz

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#3415012 14-Sep-2025 22:56

That maybe true, but the council are responsible, even if they contract out. I have seen some really steep edges of roads and they can build them up at entrances. They often put reflectors on them ends because they can be a trip hazard to cyclists as they are in that area of the road

eracode

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#3415017 15-Sep-2025 03:49

mattwnz:

That maybe true, but the council are responsible, even if they contract out.

Yes, and I didn’t say the council isn’t responsible - it clearly is. I’m suggesting reasons why it may be difficult to get it to act - as the OP has already found. That's why I suggested earlier that it could be escalated with a lawyer’s letter.

The legal approach will cost but the status quo is more expensive. The OP is saying he wants to sell his house but can’t if the problem isn’t resolved - because “No one wants to buy a house with a garage they can’t access”.

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MadEngineer

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#3415249 15-Sep-2025 20:13

Have you got a case number? Can you ring the council and ask what the plan is, in response to your complaint?

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Benoire

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#3415286 16-Sep-2025 08:18

Handle9:

@benoire this would seem to be in your area of expertise.

Morning folks & thanks for the prod Handle9!

As a person who writes and develops engineering and transport standards for a very large soon-to-be-defunct transport authority in NZ this will likely be another case of poor quality rehabilitation/surfacing of the existing road. Now I don't know the jurisdiction in question but within ours, when our maintenance contractors reseal a road they are supposed to maintain the same channel levels as previously achieved otherwise we will get grounding trouble as you will get multiple change of grade and angles (compound gradients) that can make it so the front or back will scrape on entry/exit.

Compliance with a district plan (or unitary plan) is harder as that won't often have controls for road camber or channel gradient as this will either be in their engineering standards or maintenance contracts and are not a pure compliance perspective. B85 is kinda irrelevant here as the crossing should be designed to achieve VDAM (vehicle dimension and mass) rules as this governs the legally lowest a vehicle can be from the ground.

I would focus on the concept of existing use - you had existing use of the driveway via the road and the works 15 months ago have stopped that. If necessary, alert a local journalist with your email trail... they love coming after Councils!

johno1234

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#3415296 16-Sep-2025 10:37

SomeoneSomewhere:

Calling/emailing a councillor can sometimes have similar effect.

You could start with one of your local board councillors. That’s what they’re there for.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3415443 16-Sep-2025 18:32

Not all areas have local boards. Councilors can be perfectly acceptable people to approach about this.

mattwnz

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#3415462 16-Sep-2025 19:16

Remember it’s saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. This is especially the case when dealing with councils from my experience.

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