Selwyn_Times: March 13, 2024

Wednesday March 13 2024 Selwyn Times
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
NEWS 7
‘They’ll have to get the bailiffs in’
“It’s old and I love it the way it
is.”
Every Tuesday, Peter cooks
his daughter-in-law Sarah a big
lunch on the coal range which
she takes home to feed her
family who also have a bach at
Greenpark Huts but don’t live
there permanently.
Peter said there is a lot of stress
among the residents, especially
for ones like him who call it
home and have little options on
where to go.
“A lot of people have got a lot to
lose. I’ve got nowhere to go. I’m
74 – where am I going to live? I’m
on a pension.
“My pension won’t even cover
rent.”
Peter said he is unlikely to
demolish his hut because he can’t
afford it.
“How come the Government
can give away Crown land to a
private enterprise? This bit of
land has nothing to do with the
lake.”
Sarah said Ngāi Tahu aren’t
thinking about the people.
“It’s so unfair because it’s like
they don’t have a heart and they
are not actually thinking about
the people.”
Peter said Ngāi Tahu’s reasons
about sewage and water quality
do not stack up.
“Sewage which comes off the
land is nothing compared to
neighbouring farms.”
Peter said all waste is stored
in septic tanks and then trucked
away.
Chris Muir owns a hut with his
nephews and was visiting from
the Gold Coast to get some of the
items stored in his hut.
The hut has been in his family
for 59 years after his dad bought
it for £50.
“It’s a disgrace. We could have
sold our place four years ago
and might have got between
$60-$80,000. When they said
there were no more leases to be
renewed, it dropped from that to
zero.
“I’m not pulling it down and
I’m not paying a cent to pull it
down.”
Over the years, the hut has
been extended with the addition
MEMORIES: Peter Scarrott has lived at Greenpark Huts for more than 30 years, daughter in law Sarah also owns a bach.
Right, Chris Muir and Rose Roberts reminisce over their family’s memories of coming to the huts for holidays.
of a kitchen and shower.
Like Peter’s hut, all cooking is
done on a coal range.
Chris said he would use the hut
as a getaway home to come and
fish and shoot.
“As kids, we would come out
here during the school holidays.
Mum and dad would bring us
out and we’d spend two weeks
running around shooting air
rifles and whatever.”
Chris said since 2020, little has
changed with the huts apart from
their condition.
“They’ve got a lot rougher
because people think what’s the
point it painting the outside or
keeping it neat and tidy.”
About 10km from Greenpark
Huts, situated between the lake
and the Selwyn River, lies the
quiet settlement of Upper Selwyn
Huts.
Today the 100 residents will
find out their future as the
council will decide how long they
can stay on the land and how
much it will cost them.
Like Greenpark Huts, Upper
Selwyn Huts is facing risks from
climate change and issues of
waste water management.
Council chief executive Sharon
Mason said there is a finite time
the huts will be able to remain.
The council is proposing
anywhere from a five to 30-year
lease extension, but it comes with
a four-digit price tag.
To alleviate issues with
wastewater, the council is
proposing to install a $4 million
pipeline that will connect
the settlement to the Pines
Wastewater Treatment Plant near
Burnham. Residents will have to
pay half of the pipeline’s cost.
The pipeline fee is on top of the
hut owners’ licence fee and rates
and could bring their total bill to
anywhere from $4752 to $7998 a
year.
Hut owner Graeme Young
has been living at Upper Selwyn
for about 20 years and is unsure
what to make of the council’s
most recent offer.
“We haven’t been told
anything.”
He chose to move out to the
huts for the quiet lifestyle and
cheap living.
Graeme, like other hut residents,
believes the huts should be
on the general rate for water and
sewage.
“In 1987, each house put in
$3000 and built a brand new
wastewater system,” Young said.
That system still remains on
the outskirts of the settlement,
and Graeme says it still works
well. But in 2020 the resource
consent ran out, with Environment
Canterbury granting
one-year extensions to give the
council and community time to
finalise a solution.
The council argue because
the huts have a finite time they
will be there, it is unfair for all
ratepayers to pay for the new
pipeline.
“It just beggars belief that we
wouldn’t be on that (district
wide) scheme”
Once the council makes its
decision today, the hut owners
will have until May 27 to sign off
the new licenses.
Drive another five minutes on a
gravel road and you reach Lower
Selwyn Huts. Like Greenpark,
most people are not full-time
residents. The lower huts were
established in 1894, the oldest of
the three communities. There are
still about 50 huts on the land.
The land is owned by the
Department of Conservation and
a deal is yet to be reached for how
long they will be able to stay.
Sara Goodey is one of the
residents who lives at the huts
permanently. She said their
current lease expires in July but a
deal is yet to be made.
“It’s all up in the air,” she said.
Goodey said every year for
about the last four there has been
flooding around the huts, but it
has done little damage as most
of the buildings are raised off the
ground.
“As long as they open the lake
in time it’s not too bad.”
Like others, Goodey said she
has nowhere else to go yet.
“This is my house.”
As the clock ticks down for
all three settlements, the future
remains uncertain for the
communities that have called this
land their home for more than
120 years.
IN LIMBO: Graeme Young has lived at the Upper Selwyn
Huts for 20 years and is waiting for the council to decide
how much longer he can stay there.
Judith Bullin
PARTNER
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