30 May 2022
Wayne Scott
Sent via email to
[FYI request #19047 email]
Dear Wayne,
REQUEST FOR OFFICIAL INFORMATION – RELEASE OF INFORMATION
We refer to your official information request dated 4 April 2022. You requested the following
information from the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC):
On 4 May 2022, we sent you a response for your original request above. On the same day you sent us
an email with the following questions. In addition, we requested an extension to respond to your
further request.
• Are you saying there has been no correspondence with any party related to the private
occupiers of the hut since 1997?
• Are you able to advise how many non-related members of the public have been able to book
this hut since 1997?
• Are you able to advise why it has taken over 12 months for the hut to revert to Council
management?
• Are you further advising that there has been private occupation of public land for over 25
years with no monies being paid to the Council?
QLDC response
•
Are you saying there has been no correspondence with any party related to the private
occupiers of the hut since 1997?
To address this part of your request we consulted our records team who have access to the manual
searching of the files and documents and they have provided the below response:
-
There are a number of documents on the property file which are available to the public via
eDocs. These include the building consent that was applied for by APL on behalf of QLDC in
2014 to install a wood burner in the QLDC hut and the resource consent and building consent
applications from M Robertson and B Douglas from 1997 to rebuild their hut.
Pigeon Island was part of the APL portfolio until last year and we have since received the physical files
into our archives however a full audit and digitization has not yet been completed. I have reviewed a
number of physical files for Pigeon Island from the APL records, there was much discussion around
the management plan including fire prevention, pest reduction etc., as well as communications about
the rebuilding of the hut that spanned a few years leading up to 1997, which do not seem relevant to
the request. We have found some records in these archives however we need a bit more time to
complete this review.
We will endeavor to complete this by the end of this week (3 June 2022)
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•
Are you able to advise how many non-related members of the public have been able to book
this hut since 1997?
-
QLDC does not hold this information, nor is it requested by people booking / staying in the
hut.
•
Are you able to advise why it has taken over 12 months for the hut to revert to Council
management?
-
Council reviews our assets on a periodic basis and this inspection was part of the normal
cycle of facilities review.
•
Are you further advising that there has been private occupation of public land for over 25
years with no monies being paid to the Council?
-
As is normal on much of Council reserve land, premise and structures can occupy land for a
peppercorn occupation of $1 per annum. QLDC does not own the building.
Please note Council has met with the relevant parties and is working on taking back the ownership &
management of the Hut as informed to you in our last response following the passing away of Mr
Robinson & Mr Douglas.
We trust this response satisfactorily answers your request.
Kind regards,
Poonam Sethi
Governance and official Information Advisor
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