Wednesday, 14 January 2009

Proposed Dairy Farm Porpoise Bay


disturbing news from the deep south.
Liz and Dave have mounted a very strong campaign to make others aware of a proposed Dairy farm conversion on land in the Porpoise Bay area. They are highly motivated to gain maximum support for the cause. Many of you have been on email lists with updates over the last weeks, but for those unaware here is an outline of the situation>
Below is a media release by them to the citizens of the land and sea.

ARE YOU AWARE…
“South Coast Dairy Limited has purchased land on the Haldane Curio Bay Rd, with settlement due 31st March 2009. We are proposing to convert this land from a sheep & beef farm to a dairy operation milking 400 cows”
(Note – the application to council subsequently mentioned intention to purchase additional land in the future and farm up to 750 cows)

The above statement is the opening sentence of a letter sent to us by South Coast Dairy Limited, explaining their intentions. We received this letter, as did other neighboring land owners, because this dairy conversion is regarded as a “discretionary activity” and therefore Resource Consents are required. As part of the process of getting the necessary Resource Consents, affected parties such as us are required to be notified and asked to sign consent forms to give our approval.

We have not signed the forms despite being asked 3 times by one of the directors as we believe this activity will have a more detrimental effect on the general Porpoise Bay and Curio Bay environment than the current traditional sheep/beef farming operations in the area. The eastern boundary of the dairy farm is only 1km from Porpoise Bay (approximately) and the effluent ponds will be positioned approximately 1.5km from Porpoise Bay. Cooks Stream forms part of the farm boundary and runs into Porpoise Bay.

Because we have not given our approval, and other landowners also haven’t given their approval, then this application by South Coast Dairy Limited must be publicly notified (Below public Notice newspaper clipping dated 10th January 2009).
This means that anyone can make a submission to the Southland District Council by way of writing a letter, explaining why they oppose the application.

The purpose of this notice is to inform all people who live in the area or who visit the area regularly that once this becomes publicly notified, there are only 20 working days to make submissions to oppose this development. The more submissions that are received, the greater the chance of this development not being allowed to proceed.

We urge you to start thinking about the consequences now and the possible effects that this could have on the future for residents and users of the bay, the real locals of the area i.e. the Hectors Dolphins and Yellow Eyed Penguins, the fish and shellfish, the tourists who visit – many of whom travel to NZ purely to have a Porpoise Bay dolphin experience and the future generations of people who live and travel here.

We are not anti-dairy farms, we simply don’t believe that a dairy farm in such close proximity to Porpoise Bay is in any way an improvement to the environment or will even maintain the status quo, even with maximum adherence to best practice dairy farming methods. Do you want to be saying to your future childrens’ children “we used to be able to swim/surf….there used to be a pod of resident Hectors…it never used to smell like this….look like this….the water used to be clear…we used to fish for….”

You may contact us if you need help with making a submission. You can also contact Environment Southland www.es.govt.nz . If you don’t want to be involved, that’s OK. Everyone has a right to their opinion and that’s what this process is all about.

Liz Hodgson and Dave Burnett, 736 Haldane Curio Bay Rd, RD 1 Tokanui. Ph 03 246 8874.
(Resident surfers). Email: lizdave@southnet.co.nz

Make a submission on this resource consent:

The most effective way for you to influence the resource consent process is to make a submission on an application. The Resource Management Act allows any person or organisation to make a submission on any notified application.If you are considering making a submission then you should find out as much as possible about the proposal and its effects.

Make a Submission on a Resource Consent

Making a Submission

Want to make a submission on a this Resource Consent?
Download the Submission Form here

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