Twin brothers Mark and Brett Illingworth are gutted that the motorway will go through their dream land, but know it needs to go somewhere. See their story on page 10.
Warkworth farmer Brett Illingworth was clearing gorse when his brother Mark told him the new motorway to Wellsford was going through their land on Phillips Road.
“He said, ‘You might as well stop. The motorway is going through here and we’re going to lose the land’. So I did,” Brett says.
The proposed route will take about half their land on the eastern side where it is flat, leaving them with “the crap” hills and bush.
The two families purchased the 50 hectares last November after a seven year search for “the right piece of dirt” for a tourism venture. They had sold their 98-hectare dry stock farm in Matakana after owning it for 14 years.
The new land was close to their family homes in Warkworth with the perfect mix of flats, hills and bush, and close to the new Puhoi to Warkworth motorway interchange. They did due diligence and were not expecting a tunnel, to bypass Dome Valley, only kilometres away from their land.
Their planned tourism venture would have created jobs for Warkworth, but it was also going to be their job to work the land for the next two years.
For the past three months they have been clearing gorse and were about to upgrade the farm tracks and fencing.
Brett says they have stopped work as improvements will not make a difference to the sale price because “it’s going to be bowled anyway.”
“We can’t go forward so there is no reason to do anything now. The idea we bought the land for is dead in the water. There is no future in farming it or tourism; nothing. It’s all finished. It’s a no-win situation and now it’s a stalemate,” Brett says.
Mark says they don’t know what to do next.
“Anyone who has a dream is gutted when their dream comes to an end,” he says.
The brothers bought the land with the intention of creating a future for their families – Brett has three children and Mark has five. But they say the family is also philosophical about it and they don’t consider themselves ‘not in my backyard’ people.
“It’s going to be in our backyard and we’ve got to accept that that’s just the way life goes. For us to try and push it to the other side of the hill is just going to push it onto someone else’s backyard, which is unfair to them.”
While they are waiting to hear details that the indicative route is the most viable option, they want NZTA to get on with the process and provide certainty so they can move on.
“Everyone knows the road needs to go somewhere; we just never thought it would be here.
“But what can you do about it? Protesting about it won’t stop them; all it does is postpone it and make you miserable and we’re not getting any younger. We just want them to get on with it.”
