Land has become the most difficult subject on this island, for a reason that is worth naming: a plot near the visitor beach is now worth several times what it was worth ten years ago, and old allocations that nobody cared about are suddenly contested.
What the council holds is a record. Allocations, dates, names, measurements, and what has been built. For most of the island it goes back to the nineteen eighties and it is usually the oldest paper in existence. Anybody may read what it says about their own plot, and it is worth doing before you pay anybody for advice.
What the council does not do: decide who owns land, settle a boundary, reverse an allocation, or put any view about ownership in writing, including a view about a lease to a guesthouse. Nothing said at this counter is a ruling. Those decisions belong to the office that holds that authority.
What the council does with an application: takes it, checks the paperwork, attaches what the register shows, forwards it with a covering letter and chases it on the first Sunday of every month, recording every reply in your file.
Where a dispute exists, the council records that it exists, so that nothing is allocated or built over it while it is being settled elsewhere. That record has protected two families here and it is the most useful thing we can offer.