Whitianga Public Meeting 21 October 2003
Whitianga Golf Club
5pm to 7pm
100 Attended
Commentary
· In the example used by John Acland [the Taupo walk], where owners allowed access, owners are paid yearly, do you think that this is a precedent?
· Why are they giving you [tenure review] compensation, when you are asking us to give it for nothing?
· 37 groups were invited to put in submissions.
- Am I correct that the New Zealand Law Society did not?
· Why do we need 20 metres, is 5 metres insufficient?
· District Councillor: The full 20 metres are negotiable through the esplanade reserve process.
· Coastal farmer: Concerned with access to public land across private land.
- Giving access all the time is not good conservation.
- If we give public access to everything, will we see more reserves needing protection?
- I feel that our mana is being threatened on our own farm.
- Our fundamental right is to be able to deny access.
- Who is going to police this?
- The trespass law is weak.
- There are problems with cannabis.
- Keep our property rights the way they are.
· What constitutes a river?
· Dairy farmer: Has a dairy farm with a river and paper roads.
- Local Maori and ourselves fish there but Fonterra wants to put up a fence [riparian management].
· We have divided law, going over 150 years.
- You want to simplify the law, we want simplified law and now - because I am getting pretty old.
· Farmer with river boundary: How would these exemptions for houses alongside rivers work?
- How does a person walking along a river cope with this when encountering a house?
· How do you make them go this way, when they would rather go that way?
- If you put a Queen's Chain on my block you take away 80% of the land.
· Councillor: What are your suggestions regarding erosion?
- There are plenty of examples in the area e.g. Buffalo Beach.
· DOC lets conservation values rule over recreation.
- You do not have the right to go anywhere in national parks.
· Want to know about land with conservation covenants - our covenant says no access.
- Where do we stand?
· Would hate New Zealand to get like Germany where you cannot get to a lake to swim.
· Only a percentage of people want access.
- You should adopt DOC's stance and develop some tracks and leave other areas alone.
- Then users and owners have defined boundaries.
- Leave some areas for the future i.e., open access as required.
- Agree with the approach of walkways where there is money available for forming tracks.
· The Queen's Chain in the Kaimoana Valley was established for mineral extraction, not public access.
- Why have the Queen's Chain over our property when the Government does not put it over theirs?
- This is caught up with the foreshore/seabed.
- I suggest that all small rivers be excluded and small ones with the Queen's Chain be removed.
· Need to define a river/stream.
- Have people who have entered property and become distressed trying to access areas that are inappropriate.
· Has there been any thought given to the QEII trust type model, where assistance with fencing and covenants etc is given?
· Farmer: Do recreational clubs nationally have a directory where all accessways are?
- There should be the equivalent to a "Moteliers" guide for recreationalists.
- Where people drink and vandalise you want to put a chain on and lock the gate.
· This is the most fascinating meeting in 45 years of farming politics.
- I have four strands that make up who I am - how will you get an outcome that satisfies those four strands?
· People are required to fence in swimming pools, if rivers are opened up, people will drown.
- The public never walks on chain reserves, you find them walking in your paddocks.
· We are fencing and planting the streams.
· You need to be able to block access at certain times of the year e.g., lambing.
· District Councillor: [Quotes FF submission regarding the number of landowners that do provide access].
- If it works, why fix it?
· You have not touched on the public liability question enough.
- A lot of pine plantations are not insured because of the cost to insure.
· Landowner/tramper: Has experienced few problems with access.
- Has a simple policy of access by permission.
- Also a tramper and has come across areas that have previously been open and are now closed.
- Need better information about what access is available.
- Need support to assist those of us who give access, to enable us to continue to do so.
- The code of conduct is important.
· There seemed to be little in the report about environmental protection.
- The only thing that is protecting remote parts of the Coromandel is the difficulty of accessing these.
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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