coominya

Yep, that sounds about right for a modern government. Out here we say, "It's better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission of council" As a case in point our neighbor up on the country property wanted to clear an extra few acres beside an previously cleared area that had regrowth. landcare used to regulate it and getting permission was like pulling teeth, so the neighbor simply put his bulldozer across the extra acres and pleaded ignorance. He was slapped with a $1500 fine and now that the land "is" cleared he can clear it any time he wishes.

atbman

It's nothing to do with "modern government", more to do with a country where generations of property/landowners have accumulated rights, wayleaves, ownership conditions and so on and so forth. I would imagine your neighbour would be somewhat miffed, to put it mildly, if his neighbours decided to exercise what they saw as their rights to walk across his land and he disagreed. I understand US citizens take their property owning rights pretty seriously.

I happen to think (but then I would) that the legislation is somewhat flawed and that where a reasonable case can be made, a provisional acknowledgement of a Right of Way should be accepted, subject to it being closed if, down the line, that case has not been shown to be made.

CB HI

We do, but our government in the form of the EPA and other departments walks all over our property rights. Our Supreme court said it was OK for local governments to take our land away and give it to commercial interest so the local government can collect more taxes. So there are some very hard feelings about what our government is doing.

coominya

When the government solves a problem it creates 2 others, that's just self preservation. Government never seems to get smaller unless it's going broke.

unterhausen

ok, so, against forum rules, this thread has gone off into a political morass. We have a hard and fast rule against discussing politics out of the P&R forum. Please take this into consideration when drafting future posts.