Outdoor Walking Access Report to the Minister for Rural Affairs

2 Structure of report

In this report, the Panel informs the Minister for Rural Affairs on the issues that arose during the consultation process and makes recommendations. These recommendations reflect, as far as possible, a consensus on how to address the access concerns identified. Recommendations are also made on matters where there is no clear consensus.

The consultations indicated that most people did not want a major departure from the status quo. Some access advocates have reservations about this approach, which depends to a large extent on the traditional goodwill between landholders and recreational users being retained and built upon.

The basis of this report is the Panel’s agreement that there is a public interest in recreational walking access in the outdoors, and that this interest must be reconciled with the right of private landowners to control who may access their land. Current tensions between these concepts are linked to a trend away from the tradition of rural landholders allowing free recreational walking access to their land and to the absence of a recognised and accepted public policy framework for walking access. The Panel believes that this report can form the basis of such a framework.

This report begins with a discussion on the aim and principles that the Panel agrees should be used to guide the issue of walking access in the future (Part 2). It is followed by a detailed consideration of, and recommendations on, the key issues raised during consultation (Part 3).

The report concludes with a summary of the recommendations, the alternative view of one Panel member and a proposed plan of action (Part 4).

This report emphasises water margin access because public land along water margins has been reserved since the earliest days of organised European settlement in New Zealand. The Panel recognises the importance of access “across country” to water margins and access to other public land, and these matters are also covered.

This report is accompanied by three companion reports:

  • Outdoor Walking Access: Analysis of Written Submissions (Walking Access Consultation Panel 2007);
  • Roading Law as it Applies to Unformed Roads (Hayes 2007a);
  • Elements of the Law on Movable Water Boundaries (Hayes 2007b).

Summaries of the latter two reports form Appendix I and Appendix J of this report.

This report, the three companion reports and notes from the consultation meetings are available on the walking access website (www.walkingaccess.org.nz).