Action on railyard dumping eyesore

LUCY TOWNEND

Last updated 12:00 12/11/2012

Relevant offers

The head of Dannevirke's community board is pleased he's finally received a response from KiwiRail promising to remedy a railyard dumping spot.

Tararua District Council received a response from KiwiRail last week, and it was forwarded on to Dannevirke Community Board chairman Ray Teahan, concerning industrial waste stretching more than 20 metres long that had been left at railyards in Dannevirke.

The debris, which is on one of Dannevirke's main routes, Queen St, includes broken concrete, bollards, pipes, rusted wire netting, glass bottles and bitumen.

But it is unclear who is responsible for the mess.

Mr Teahan, who called the area "a bloody eyesore" last week, raised the issue with the council at the start of October.

The council then wrote to KiwiRail on October 12, as it believed KiwiRail to be the landowner.

KiwiRail responded on Friday last week, after the Manawatu Standard ran an article on the issue the previous day.

In the letter, KiwRail lease administrator Andrew Sowry said the land no longer belonged to the organisation, and was transferred to Land Information New Zealand several years ago.

However, plans had been made to rectify the dumping situation.

"I have been in touch with the Dannevirke manager, who has advised me that KiwiRail had some ballast stockpiled in this area but the vast majority of the material on the Land Information New Zealand land has been dumped by third parties and local contractors.

"All materials stored by KiwiRail have now been removed."

Land Information New Zealand Crown property manager Bill Naik said he, too, had plans to rectify the situation.

"We have investigated and determined that the roading material has been deposited on LINZ-administered land. We are working with KiwiRail to have the material removed as soon as possible."

Mr Teahan said he was happy plans were in motion.

"We're very pleased some action's being taken on it and that something has happened. Hopefully, if we can keep an eye on it, it won't happen again or someone . . . will police it."

Ad Feedback