Ombudsman answers demolition complaint

Press, 21 December 1976, Page 6

Ombudsman answers demolition complaint

[Staff Reporter Westport > The Ombudsman (Mr G. R. I Taking) has told a Christchurch woman that he has no power to investigate a court decision. .He was replying to Miss] Diane Hooper who had com-] plained to him about the Wilkes house demolition at Punakaikai last month. The Buller County was sent a copy of the letter and the county yesterday released it for publication. i Mr Wilkes had been served an order by the Buller [County Council to demolish [the house he was building because no building permit had been obtained. Nor had he applied for a change of (use. “Mr Wilkes, you tell me, ignored the order and continued building,” Mr Laking said. “You have made it clear in your letter that between the time the council served the order to demolish the building and the date of your letter to me nobody has complained to me about the council’s action or appealed against the Magistrate’s Court’s decipion,” he said, i “Had a complaint been made to me before the matter was taken to court I may have been able to investigate a complaint against the council’s action in serving the order. “Trie owner of the prop- [ erty at Porari had a statutory right to appeal against the Magistrate’s decision of August 26. (On that day Mr F. G. Paterson, S.M., in the Westport Magistrate’s Court, upheld the Buller County application and ordered Mr Wilkes to demolish the house I by October 31, 1976.) “Because that right existed,” Mr Larkin said, "I am precluded from investigating the complaint unless it can be shown that by reason of special circumstances it would have been unreasonable to expect the owners of the property to have resorted to an appeal.” Mr Laking said his senior]

■ investigating officer had . spoken to Joan Wilkes, who ■ lives and works in Chnst- ; church. J “She said she was not i aware that you had made a i complaint to me on her bei half. She went, on to say that . she was separated from Owen Wilkes and wanted nothing more to do with disputes with the Buller County Council. She also said she no longer had any interest in the property’ at Porari which was now in the names of Owen Wilkes and Madeline Buchanan,” Mr Laking said The Ombudsman Act of 1975 required that a complainant must be affected personally by what is being complained about, he said- ! “As the owners of the property are, according to Joan Wilkes, Owen Wilkes and Madeline Buchanan, it is not clear to me that you are personally affected by this matter,” the Ombudsman said.