Developer owes city $1.8M | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Wanganui District Council has a $1.8 million bill for property developer C J Efstratiou for failing to provide car parking in St Hill St.

Mr Efstratiou has a contractual obligation to provide 71 public car parks at the former Firestone carpark site. Continuing to provide parking was a condition of the land sale agreement he signed with the council in late 2004.

The council wrote seeking the money from him in May, legal officer Paul Drake said. No payment has been received so far.

The $1,822,113.84 plus GST the council seeks is made up of $549,540 for failing to provide the parking between December 22 last year and April 31 this year, and a further $1,272,573.84 - the lump sum agreed to ensure the purchaser met his obligations.

The council has yet to decide what to do about non-payment but any legal action would comes at a cost.

Mr Drake said enforcing the contract would entail hiring extra lawyers. That was likely to be expensive and might have little benefit.

"We are looking at other legal ways to get compliance."

The state of the St Hill St property was a separate matter.

A year ago, then mayor Michael Laws said Mr Efstratiou had a "moral responsibility" to clean up the empty properties on the St Hill St/Maria Place site because they were a "disgrace".

If an abatement notice was served on the developer, that could be followed up by an enforcement order from the Environment Court.

The issue of the St Hill St site has been complicated because no development can happen until the archaeological excavation of European artifacts there has been completed.

But work has stalled because Mr Efstratiou and Archaeology North are in dispute, the subject of an ongoing court case.

Councillor Jack Bullock said the issue was dragging on for too long and could take years for a resolution.

"I doubt he will pay the invoice. It's ridiculously huge. The council will probably have to go to litigation and it will only drag things out, further delaying the development," he said.

"I can't see the development being finished within five years."

Mr Bullock called for future meetings about the development to be open to the public. Previously they have all been held behind closed doors.

Councillor Rob Vinsen said it was unacceptable that sites earmarked for the development remained in a state of limbo. The sale contract lacked appropriate non-compliance penalties, he said.

"I don't think that there were strong enough restrictions placed on Mr Efstratiou at the time."

The Chronicle attempted to contact Mr Efstratiou, who lives in England, but he could not be reached.

Archaeologist Michael Taylor halted work on the site on April 19 last year, citing non-payment, and laid off his team of eight archaeologists.

They had uncovered a rich array of material culture because of the size and location of the site, he said. "It is the pinnacle. You won't get a better site. It encapsulates European Wanganui." Preliminary sorting was completed and, while the artifacts remained the property of the landowner, a selection must be donated to Whanganui Regional Museum.