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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Public Works Act 1981

Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

114: Declaring land to be road

You could also call this:

“Making land into a road: How the government turns land into a road for everyone to use”

The Minister can declare any land to be a road by putting a notice in the Gazette. This applies to all land, whether the Crown owns it or not.

Before declaring land as a road, the Minister needs written permission from certain people or groups. These include:

  • The person renting or using Crown-owned land
  • The group in charge of reserves or endowments, and anyone renting them
  • The owner or Minister in charge of government land
  • The Minister of Railways for railway land
  • The Minister of Conservation for conservation areas
  • The New Zealand Transport Agency for State highways
  • The local council for roads in their area
  • Anyone else who has a registered interest in the land

When the notice is published in the Gazette, or on a later date mentioned in the notice, the land becomes a road. It then belongs to either:

  • The local council named in the notice, or
  • The Crown, if no local council is named

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM47315.

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Part 8 Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

114Declaring land to be road

  1. Subject to subsection (2), the Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, declare any land, whether owned by the Crown or not, to be road.

  2. Land shall not be declared to be road without the written consent of—

  3. the lessee or licensee, if the land is owned by the Crown and held under lease or licence:
    1. the body or persons in whom the land or its control is vested, and the lessee or licensee (if any), if the land is a reserve or an endowment or is held in trust. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any Act or rule of law, the body or persons in whom any land or its control is so vested shall have authority to give any consent that may be required for the purposes of this section:
      1. the owner or Minister in charge of the department of State that administers the land, if the land is not of a class referred to in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b):
        1. the Minister of Railways, if the land is held for a railway:
          1. the Minister of Conservation if the land is a public reserve, part of a public reserve, a conservation area within the meaning of the Conservation Act 1987, or is managed by the Department of Conservation under section 61 or section 62 of that Act:
              1. the New Zealand Transport Agency, in the case of a State highway or proposed State highway:
                1. the territorial authority in whose district the land is situated, in the case of a road or proposed road, as defined in section 315 of the Local Government Act 1974:
                  1. all other persons who have any registered interest in the land, or any other interest disclosed by a register under the Land Transfer Act 2017 or the Deeds Registration Act 1908.

                    1. On the date of the publication in the Gazette of a notice issued under subsection (1), or on such later date as may be specified in that notice as the date on which it shall take effect, all land to which the notice relates shall—

                    2. vest in the territorial authority named in that behalf in the notice; or
                      1. notwithstanding anything in section 316 of the Local Government Act 1974, vest in the Crown if no territorial authority is so named.

                        Compare
                        • 1948 No 39 s 29(1), (2)
                        Notes
                        • Section 114(2)(e): substituted, on , by section 31(1) of the Public Works Amendment Act 1988 (1988 No 43).
                        • Section 114(2)(f): repealed, on , by section 31(1) of the Public Works Amendment Act 1988 (1988 No 43).
                        • Section 114(2)(g): amended, on , by section 50(1) of the Land Transport Management Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 47).
                        • Section 114(2)(i): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).