Waikato Expressway extension forces family from Tīrau Rd home of 40 years

But the change is painful for the Fletchers, whose home is in its path. They signed a full sale agreement on Waitangi Day, giving them 10 days to move out.

“To be honest, you’ve got no choice and you haven’t got a lot of power because they’re literally the Government,” Serena said.

An NZTA spokesperson said the expansion is a ‘nationally strategic transport corridor for New Zealand’. Photo / Christel Yardley, Waikato Times

“It was so hard … you’ve got to have fish and chips on the ground because you had to be out so quickly”, she said through tears.

The NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said it had been “working constructively with the Fletchers and their representatives”.

Serena said the Fletchers originally signed for a partial sale in December last year but later changed to a full sale, signed on Waitangi Day.

They had 10 days to move and are now living in a rental.

The Fletcher family home on Tīrau Rd will be demolished to make way for a new section of the Waikato Expressway. Photo / Christel Yardley, Waikato Times

They’re moving away from their son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren, who will continue to live in a separate house on the back of the property, outside the road expansion zone.

The buyout process with NZTA has amplified the stress, Serena said.

“Everything they’ve said they were going to do, they haven’t done”.

“They said they’d help us find land, which of course they didn’t … we’re now living in town in a rental house,” she said.

Additionally, the agreement was signed with no valuation on the home as NZTA could not find a like-for-like property to value against, according to Serena.

Derelict homes are scattered around the path of the Cambridge-Piarere extension. Photo / Christel Yardley, Waikato Times

Negotiations are ongoing to settle on a dollar figure.

“They said they’d get it [the valuation] back to us the week after.”

Bulldozers showed up to cut down trees days before when she’d been told it would happen.

“You do feel like you’re being forced out, whether you actually are or not. And yes they do buy it but you still feel like you haven’t got a choice.”

When NZTA was asked about Fletcher’s claims, a spokesperson provided a statement saying the agency had been “working proactively with property owners along the SH1 Cambridge to Piarere expressway designation since August 2024”.

It was negotiating with 47 landowners and couldn’t give more detail while that continued.

Progress is already being made for the new Waikato Expressway. Photo / Christel Yardley, Waikato Times

Any agreements and discussions between the Crown and the Fletchers were “commercial in-confidence”, they said. NZTA had been “working constructively with the Fletchers and their representatives”.

“Our contractors have been in regular communication with the Fletchers.

“The timing of the tree felling was brought forward by two days, and this was discussed with a member of the family before the work got under way.”

NZTA’s board had allocated $250 million dollars in funding to allow the expressway project to progress on property acquisition, route protection, and consenting activities.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.