Farmers and Local Government New Zealand have issues with the way the Walking Access Commission publicly releases maps identifying public walking routes, saying the process was fraught with potential problems.
The maps are to be released before Christmas and will identify designated walking tracks as well as unformed legal roads, also known as paper roads, but it was the potential for disputes over the alignment of these roads which has prompted a call for landowners to be notified before the maps were released.
Federated Farmers walking access spokesman Donald Aubrey said he was seeking a meeting with Agriculture Minister David Carter to discuss aspects of the commission's intentions.
Mr Aubrey has also written to Walking Access Commission chairman John Acland, seeking assurance the maps will cover both rural and urban legal unformed roads, that individual landowners will be notified before the maps were released, and an assurance the maps were accurate.
Local Government New Zealand's (LGNZ) environment and regulatory manager, Irene Clarke, said the organisation saw potential risks with the way the maps would be released, and was working with the commission to address concerns about how it would work in practice.
"It's more about the implementation than the programme," she said of LGNZ's concerns.
He said the commission assumed land owners knew the alignment of unformed public roads, but that was not always the case.
Notifying landowners before maps were released would give them the opportunity to consider the implications of greater public use, and the impact that would have on farming.
In some cases, buildings and fences had been unintentionally built on those alignments, but following negotiations with landowners, Mr Aubrey said more practical routes might be agreed to.
Molesworth Station manager Jim Ward said recently, that he had people visit the Marlborough station who, using GPS systems, believed they were on an unformed legal road when in fact they were hundreds of metres off track.
Mr Aubrey said publicly advertising unformed paper roads was a new concept and the Walking Access Commission needed to take more responsibility, instead of releasing information and letting land owners and district councils resolve any issues.
Ultimately, councils are responsible for unformed legal roads, and they consider any applications to close them.
"It's simply not good enough for the commission to attach a disclaimer saying that the information provided may be quite inaccurate.
"This approach places too much pressure on unsuspecting landowners."