Martin De Ruyter/Stuff
The sun used to shine through the windows on the eastern side of Terry Grooby’s home into the kitchen and dining room as soon as it rose “out of the sea”. This winter, Grooby had it for about an hour each day only, he said. “I don’t even know whether I’ll be able to do it,” he said. “My health: I won t be around a hell of a lot longer, but I don’t want this to happen to anybody else.” Grooby’s lawyer, Rob Ord, on Monday said he expected to file with the Environment Court “in the next week or two”. Ord planned to apply to the court for a declaration that the use of the building was inappropriate. The developer and the council would be named, he said.
Martin De Ruyter/Stuff
Terry Grooby looks over his boundary fence in Motueka at a former classroom that blocks the sun from his home of 50 years.
Knocked back by the Tasman District Council, Dean Grooby plans to ask the Ombudsman to intervene over a building in Motueka next door to the home of his dying father. Diagnosed with cancer and expected to have fewer than two years left to live, Dean Grooby’s father, Terry, 84, wanted to enjoy that limited time in his Courtney St home of 50 years but says the “monstrosity of a building” on the other side of the fence is blocking most of his sun. It is also causing him to lose sleep.