Enforcing property rights

In December, Mr Engel warned he would stop people using his land to get to the river if the Carterton District Council forced him to break up a 38m x 14m concrete silage pad he had built on a paper road.

In early January, Mr Engel had to break up the pad ... with the council saying the matter had been resolved.

that meant there was now "zero access" to the popular spot on the river, as the publicly-owned paper road ran along a steep cliff to the river and was covered with blackberry

Excellent outcome imho. If council bureaucrats want to enforce their property rights over questionable paper roads, that have probably been used and maintained by the adjacent farmer for generations, that current owner is well within his rights to stop the unwashed accessing the river via his land.

John Acland's usurping of property rights for public access via private lands is now coming home to roost.