22 Jun 2017

A Councillor working party is being re-established to consider whether the privately owned baches that sit on Christchurch City Council managed land in Taylors Mistake, Boulder Bay and Maori Gardens should be allowed to remain.

The baches were built on publicly owned land and their legality has been an ongoing issue.

Some of the Taylors Mistake baches.

Some of the Taylors Mistake baches.

In 2014 the Council decided it would set up a working party to recommend options for determining the future of the baches, including the option of granting the bach-owners licences to occupy Council land.

The working party began that process but it overlapped with the hearings of the Independent Hearings Panel (IHP) on the relevant provisions of the Replacement District Plan. The working party put its work on hold until the provisions of the District Plan were known.

The Independent Hearings Panel did not finish that work until late 2016, by which time the working party had dissolved because of the local body elections.

At today’s Council meeting it was resolved a new working party would be set up. The working party, which will be headed by Cr Sara Templeton and include a representative from the Banks Peninsula Community Board, will be tasked with making a recommendation to the Council as to whether the baches should be allowed to remain and under what terms.

The working party has been given until September 30 to report back to the Council.