A council rule requiring a group of Hamilton riverside residents to rip out decks, fences, and outdoor fireplaces has been labelled "ludicrous", reports Warwick Rasmussen in the Waikato Times.

The Hamilton City Council is cracking down on the misuse of reserve land, known as encroachments, and wants to reclaim the land for public use.

The enforcement affects a handful of residents, including some who purchased their properties before the advent of LIM reports, and had no idea that part of their land was Council Reserve.

Owners had made significant improvements to the properties in many cases, including building retaining walls and planting banks.

In one case, the boundary line was about three metres closer to the house than the owners thought and if the council reclaimed the land they would have to cut up their deck and remove the retaining wall system which would then threaten the stability of their own property.

The council move has been described as "absurd" by city councillor Dave Macpherson and "ludicrous" by landowners. It has also divided the elected wing at the council.

Mayor Bob Simcock's casting vote was required to make the decision, which overturned an earlier community and environment committee ruling to allow the property owners the chance to buy the land.

Councillor Dave Macpherson said the council decision was the wrong one.

"The geography of the land means that we can't really use that land for a pathway or anything. The whole thing is nuts from my point of view."

But the council's parks and gardens manager Bill Featherstone disagreed and said the rules were simple.

"The council has adopted a policy of requiring people to remove encroachments from reserve land. People need to be exactly clear what they are buying.

"It really brings some equality to the application of the law. One way of looking at it is to say that these people have enjoyed the use of this land rent-free all of these years."

He said that the reserve land would "probably be planted with trees". It was unlikely the land would be used for any kind of walkway.

Cr Macpherson hoped the encroachment issue would be raised again at the next council meeting.