Anyone had dealings with council wanting part of your land.

[legarlu]

Just yesterday received a letter from council (not mine) across from my property advising they want to acquire a part of my corner to build a roundabout in 5 months.   I live on a corner semi rural block approx 5 acres where there is an intersection ATM.  What if I don't want to sell some of my land what rights do I have.  The roundabout will create more headlight pollution  as now the vehicles will be veering to the left while coming from the street opposite whereby they come straight through ATM. Not happy Jan.

[imastawka]

Nah.   That's an Italian astronaut - a speciman   

Legarlu, it could be a win-win.

Gone are the days when they just took the land and gave you tuppence for it.

I think you may get a decent amount and maybe could do something useful with it?

[legarlu]

Many thanks for your replies. Definitely will request fence/hedgefor theheadlights.  The letter advises it's happening March . Not even 6 months notice.

[chameleon54]

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@davidc4430 wrote:

i agree, 99% of the time you lose your land and get less than its real value in compensation, doesnt mean you cant be difficult to work with.

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Not sure what you are basing that on David, but it wasnt my experience when the Highways department wanted ten acres of my land to straighten out a road. Rather than being " difficult to work with " I worked constructively with them to get a good outcome. They paid substantially above the going rate per acre, replaced a worn out fence with around 1 km. of shiney new fence and borrowed some of my sandy paddock for a detour.

This involved building a temporary clay road on my farm, over a sand hill. When the roadworks where finished, rather than cart the clay away, I got the highways dept. to spread the clay over a wide area and plow it into the sand, giving the light sand much better water holding capacity. It worked a treat, with that patch of the farm growing much better crops than surrounding, untouched areas.

OP. You say the roudabout is needed. Sure you could be a pain in the a$$, just because you can, but what will that achieve ? Much better to work in a constructive, co-operative way to get the best outcome for everyone.

Government departments are not always enemy no. 1. Often they are just people with families and kids, trying to do their job and provide services that everyone in the community uses.

[davidc4430]

i was going on the horror stories often in the media about government wanting land for widening roads and creating coridors for train tracks.

as recently as the last few yesrs along south road.

then there was the coridor for the southern rail link that wasnt built.

people were forced out of their homes and were not paid substantialy above the going rate only to see the land never used.