S1 Consultant helps rural council develop land access agreements with farmers

The brief was to develop a suitable access agreement to be negotiated with landholders and provide assistance in negotiating this agreement through to completion. The solution developed was based around a basic “plain English” access agreement outlining the benefits of the project at an individual and community level, the aims and contributions of Council and the responsibilities of individual landholders. Assistance was provided to Council in negotiating the agreement one on one with landholders at the property level.
 
The key to success in developing and negotiating an effective outcome was to identify early in the process the aims and basic requirements of both parties, the benefits they would receive and the impacts or changes required to their current operations. With this as a starting point, a process was developed and agreement drafted building on these benefits and services with the aim of optimising the outcome to each party through negotiation of design, scheduling, local siting, cost sharing, ongoing maintenance and access responsibilities.
 
Negotiations were undertaken in good faith, on-site directly with individual farmers and were based on a give and take approach. The aims of the project were achieved by working towards an outcome providing net benefit to both parties and an overall gain for the local community.

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