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NZ Post has no plans to deliver post to individual homes in one of Rodney’s newest subdivisions, Ara Hills west of Ōrewa – even as the community grows.
Instead, it is treating Ara Hills as a rural delivery area, and will only deliver post to what it calls “aggregated delivery points” – centralised groups (or nests) of boxes. It was doing that until late last year, when the developer, AVJennings, removed the only nest of boxes, located near a playground in the heart of the development.
The situation has led to a standoff: AVJennings hopes NZ Post will review its decision not to provide home deliveries; NZ Post says it has no plans to do so.
In the meantime, apart from those who have hired post office boxes in Ōrewa or Silverdale, residents say they have not been getting post for months.
Ara Hills is a growing neighbourhood of terraced houses, standalone homes and apartments. Stage one of the 84-hectare development is already home to more than 360 residents occupying more than 120 homes. There will eventually be more than 700 dwellings. Each home has a letterbox, but they all stand empty.
Three kilometres to the south lies Milldale, another new subdivision also on the western side of State Highway 1. Unlike their counterparts in Ara Hills, Milldale residents have been receiving post at their homes since November 2022.
Explaining its decision to remove the nest of boxes in Ara Hills park late last year, AVJennings project director Katelyn Orton told the paper that the interim measure had not been feasible, “due to practical considerations, safety concerns, and the risk of mail theft”. She said it was an impractical idea anyway, as development of Ara Hills continues and will see hundreds more residents join the community over the next couple of years.
Orton said AVJennings would prefer that NZ Post reviews its decision, and recognises Ara Hills as an urban area as it has done with Milldale.
But NZ Post said it had no plans to review the decision, which it attributed to economics, noting that postal delivery was “a declining market”.
“Ara Hills will remain as a rural delivery service,” a spokesperson said. “NZ Post’s decisions on whether to increase its geographic network coverage are driven by the economics of delivery, in the context of its obligation to operate a commercially successful business. Key considerations include delivery point density and mail volumes.”
In a letter sent to residents on February 14, NZ Post made clear that those wishing to get mail through the rural delivery service would not be getting it at their homes: “NZ Post rural mail delivery service has not been extended to include mailboxes located at individual properties within the Ara Hills development, but at a nest of mailboxes instead.”
Since that nest has been removed, however, the impasse continues and residents are not getting mail.
Asked what was happening now to post addressed to Ara Hills addressees, the spokesperson said NZ Post would hold mail for one month and then return to the sender, “unless an alternative forwarding address is supplied to us”.
In a letter to the Ara Hills body corporate, resident Matt Ward wrote, “The crux of the matter is this: NZ Post is actively refusing to deliver our mail, and when we sought the option of picking it up ourselves, we were told this is not possible.”
“We’re left in limbo, unable to receive crucial documents such as bills, medical records, and fines, which are subsequently escalating to debt collection agencies due to residents not knowing about them in the first place due to the inaction of those responsible for resolving this pressing issue.”
