Residential Junk Yard

Residential junkyard to be sold 16 October 2006
By RICHARD WOODD Hawera's most notable eyesore, Maurice Boyd's residential junkyard on Glover Rd, is to be put up for sale.
Mr Boyd and his wife Thelma have bought a house on Davidson St and will sell their half-acre Glover Rd property on two titles when the new valuations are released in early December.
Mr Boyd has had an ongoing battle with local councils for years, over using the property for car wrecking and scrap storage.
There are 16 old cars on the property, including five blocking the driveway and another three parked on the street. Three sheds are overflowing with assorted plumbing materials, car parts and old lawnmowers. The large house is also packed with material.
Mr Boyd said he had always been sure of his historic and continuing right to use the residential-zoned property for business purposes.
About five years ago, the South Taranaki District Council paid for a high fence to be erected to screen the front yard from public view.
This was after Mr Boyd responded to an abatement notice by being approved for legal aid assistance and announcing he would fight the action in court.
"The Mayor Mary Bourke and then chief executive Toby Hall came to see me. Over a coffee they said the case would cost them $15,000 and it wasn't worth it. I told them they'd never win. They then paid their contractors PAE to erect and paint a fence across the front."
Mr Boyd said the council's biggest mistake was giving him the option of shifting all his junk and old cars or putting up a fence to screen it.
"That meant they approved the stuff being here as long as it was hidden from view."
Mr Boyd also owns the Hawera Handyman Barn on Union St, which has also caused him problems with the council for many years because of his goods spilling out onto the footpath.
"I've tried to talk reason with (council environmental manager) Graham Young, but he does everything by the rulebook."
Asked why he had decided to sell up and move, Mr Boyd said: "It's time to start thinking about retirement. I've had health problems – I've had a breakdown, five hip replacements and I've now got the beginnings of Parkinson's disease.
"I've resisted numerous offers for the property. I've decided that once the new valuations arrive, I'll advertise for expressions of interest first, in case anyone wants to go for a re-zoning, then maybe sell by tender or auction." Mr Boyd said the property would be tidied up before the sale.
"I'll have a clean-up here. I'll just take it quietly, no need to rush things. When you look around, there's not a colossal amount of stuff here. Some of the cars are nearly ready for the crusher.
"It's got to be worth $250,000-$300,000. If we don't get our price, we'll put a tenant in and just carry on as is, but living in Davidson St."
A plumber by trade, he is also a scrap dealer, second-hand dealer, car wrecker, antiques dealer, a lawnmower fixer, and books dealer. "I'm all of those. I'm a general trader."
He denies he gets pleasure from his battles with the council.
"No, I'm just defending my rights. I don't scrap for the sake of it. But I'll bite back if I'm attacked."
Thanks to that tenacity, and the council deal, his reputation of owning one of Hawera's biggest eyesores is waning.
"Well, what can they see but a fence?"
His wife scotches any notion that he is planning to start over again at Davidson St, or keep his shop at Glover Rd.
"There's no way he's taking anything to Davidson St," she said. "I'm putting my foot down. It's not going to happen again. That's what our boys said and that's what I'm saying."
Council spokesman Graham Young declined to comment on Mr Boyd's plans. However, he is understood to have put his head in his hands when told Mr Boyd had bought another house.