{"id":393790,"date":"2026-04-23T13:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393790\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:30:16","slug":"waikato-expressway-extension-forces-family-from-tirau-rd-home-of-40-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393790\/","title":{"rendered":"Waikato Expressway extension forces family from T\u012brau Rd home of 40 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, you\u2019ve got no choice and you haven\u2019t got a lot of power because they\u2019re literally the Government,\u201d Serena said.<\/p>\n

\" An NZTA spokesperson said the expansion is a \u2018nationally strategic transport corridor for New Zealand\u2019. Photo \/ Christel Yardley, Waikato Times<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so hard … you\u2019ve got to have fish and chips on the ground because you had to be out so quickly\u201d, she said through tears.<\/p>\n

The NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said it had been \u201cworking constructively with the Fletchers and their representatives\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

They had 10 days to move and are now living in a rental.<\/p>\n

\" The Fletcher family home on T\u012brau Rd will be demolished to make way for a new section of the Waikato Expressway. Photo \/ Christel Yardley, Waikato Times<\/p>\n

They\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

The buyout process with NZTA has amplified the stress, Serena said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything they\u2019ve said they were going to do, they haven\u2019t done\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they\u2019d help us find land, which of course they didn\u2019t … we\u2019re now living in town in a rental house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"DerelictDerelict homes are scattered around the path of the Cambridge-Piarere extension. Photo \/ Christel Yardley, Waikato Times<\/p>\n

Negotiations are ongoing to settle on a dollar figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they\u2019d get it [the valuation] back to us the week after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bulldozers showed up to cut down trees days before when she\u2019d been told it would happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do feel like you\u2019re being forced out, whether you actually are or not. And yes they do buy it but you still feel like you haven\u2019t got a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

When NZTA was asked about Fletcher\u2019s claims, a spokesperson provided a statement saying the agency had been \u201cworking proactively with property owners along the SH1 Cambridge to Piarere expressway designation since August 2024\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was negotiating with 47 landowners and couldn\u2019t give more detail while that continued.<\/p>\n

\"ProgressProgress is already being made for the new Waikato Expressway. Photo \/ Christel Yardley, Waikato Times<\/p>\n

Any agreements and discussions between the Crown and the Fletchers were \u201ccommercial in-confidence\u201d, they said. NZTA had been \u201cworking constructively with the Fletchers and their representatives\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur contractors have been in regular communication with the Fletchers. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

NZTA\u2019s board had allocated $250 million dollars in funding to allow the expressway project to progress on property acquisition, route protection, and consenting activities.<\/p>\n

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the change is painful for the Fletchers, whose home is in its path. They signed a full…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24041,1039,9060,38121,18321,2109,5904,8321,3930,35838,8223,3011,71,115736,1345,22643,4521,11692,111,43,139,69,1118,2642,18217,47147,1524,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-393790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-24041","9":"tag-chips","10":"tag-decades","11":"tag-expressway","12":"tag-extension","13":"tag-family","14":"tag-final","15":"tag-fish","16":"tag-fletcher","17":"tag-floor","18":"tag-forces","19":"tag-four","20":"tag-from","21":"tag-geoff","22":"tag-home","23":"tag-marked","24":"tag-meal","25":"tag-nearly","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-of","31":"tag-rd","32":"tag-serena","33":"tag-trau","34":"tag-waikato","35":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}