Days before he was due for eviction from his Whananaki North bach, Brian Meadows has been granted a reprieve.
By Susan Botting of Local Democracy Reporting
Whangārei District Council (WDC) is reassessing its plans to evict the 57-year-old from the bach his family has occupied for three generations, after receiving a mental health clinician's plea for a stay.
The shift comes less than three months after the council moved to terminate Meadows' occupation of the 1 Whananaki Wharf Rd site, and warned it would take legal action if he remained beyond October 16.
The dispute centres on longstanding council concerns about wastewater compliance, building work undertaken without written approval and the condition of the property.
Responding to questions from Local Democracy Reporting on Monday, the council stopped short of confirming the eviction would proceed on Friday, saying it was reviewing recent information and remained open to finding a solution.
Meadows, a long-term beneficiary who says he suffers poor physical health and ongoing depression linked to childhood abuse, said the prospect of losing the family bach was devastating.
"I have always said they will have to take me out of here in a box.
"I am not leaving. I've got nowhere else to go here in Whananaki and I don't want to leave the community I've been connected with all my life."
He described the bach as his "last redoubt" and the only place where he felt secure.
In an eleventh-hour intervention, a mental health clinician on October 8 urged Mayor Ken Couper and WDC chief executive Simon Weston to immediately halt the eviction, warning removal from the property could trigger a mental health emergency.
The clinician, who Local Democracy Reporting has agreed not to name, requested an immediate and indefinite stay
She said Meadows, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder arising from childhood experiences, relied on the home as a source of stability and was already suffering significant distress from the proceedings.
"I formally request that the Council place an immediate, indefinite stay on this eviction," the clinician said.
WDC district development manager Tony Collins confirmed the council had received the correspondence.
"We will continue engaging directly with the person concerned and, where appropriate, relevant agencies, taking into account information provided and steps taken to resolve this matter in a reasonable timeframe," Collins said.
He said it was not appropriate to comment publicly on an individual's health circumstances, and any decisions about process or timeframes would be communicated directly to Meadows.
"Our preference remains to work with the parties to find an enduring solution to these longstanding issues, if that is possible."
A May 4 council letter requested evidence by the end of June, to the council's satisfaction, that its concerns about wastewater, unconsented building work, and the bach's condition they had been addressed.
WDC's termination notice on July 16 said the steps taken by Meadows had not adequately addressed the issues and were insufficient to warrant a reversal of its decision.
But Collins told Local Democracy Reporting the council had recently received further information, including from Northland Regional Council (NRC), regarding the property's wastewater arrangements.
"Northland Regional Council considers the existing blackwater system to be consistent with the relevant permitted-activity requirements," Collins said.
He said NRC had identified a potential outstanding issue relating to greywater disposal and recommended that, if there was no separate septic tank, the greywater discharge should be connected to the existing blackwater system.
"There are still matters to work through," Collins said.
NRC's early September letter to Meadows said the property's wastewater system was a permitted activity when it was built in the 1990s.
The regional council said inspections in 2018, 2021 and 2023 found the system complied with applicable regional plan rules and observed no adverse effects.
Collins said WDC had pursued termination only after years of trying to resolve the issues.
"The move towards termination and eviction was an absolute last resort."
He said the council offered Whananaki's bach licence holders new 10-year terms in 2019, subject to conditions relating to building standards, wastewater and fees.
According to council records, 11 of these 12 bach sites met those requirements.
Prominent Whananaki community leader Ian Peters is also urging the council to halt the eviction.
The former MP, and brother of New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, said he intended to seek a meeting with the council and questioned whether it had authority to act because of a longstanding ownership dispute linked to a TeWhakapiko hapū Treaty claim.
"That was not changed by the creation of an unformed legal road on which the council says Meadows and other nearby houses sit," Peters said.
The land had been taken from Māori title, with access to the local wharf for its use by the wider community, including Māori cited as the justification.
Collins rejected that argument, saying council records and licence documents identified the area as legal road vested in the council.
"Council does not accept that it lacks authority to act in relation to the licensed area."
Peters also disputed suggestions the wastewater system was harming the estuary.
The dispute has attracted wider attention because Meadows' home is one of Whananaki North's 12 remaining historic waterfront baches.
The settlement, built largely on unformed road reserve created in the 1880s, is regarded as a rare survivor of New Zealand's early coastal community history.
The bach gained national attention in the 1990s when it featured on TVNZ's Maggie's Garden Show.
Meadows said the early 20th-century bach he now lives in was originally located at Whananaki South and was bought by his grandparents, Hikurangi postmaster Bill Meadows and his wife Nellie, from Len and Merle Peters, the parents of Ian Peters, in the 1930s.
They barged it across the estuary using bullocks.
Peters said he could not verify those details personally but had no reason to doubt them.
"The Peters family welcomed all those who came to settle at Whananaki. That would especially have been the case for the local postmaster."
He said his parents would have been horrified by Meadows' predicament.
"They had a strong social conscience and would not have wanted a vulnerable member of the community thrown out of his home."
Meadows, who has lived at the bach since 1996, said a petition opposing both his eviction and demolition of the house had attracted about 80 signatures.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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