The green belt between Havelock North and Hastings should be developed further because some properties are becoming “near impossible to farm”, a landowner says.
The call for more development comes amid the impending closure of The Strawberry Patch
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Landowner in Hastings-Havelock North green belt urges more development as Strawberry Patch announces closure
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The Strawberry Patch between Havelock North and Hastings is set to close at the end of March. Photo / Paul Taylor
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Advocacy group Save Our Plains is opposed to any development in the Hastings-Havelock North green belt, saying the area’s soils are among the best in the country and need to be protected.
Strawberry Patch landowner Neil Manning said at this stage, there were no genuine offers for someone to take over the lease and business from April.
Manning and his wife Shelagh Manning own the property, as well as two adjoining properties totalling about 11ha. They founded The Strawberry Patch in the late 1990s.
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Manning said it had become harder and harder to farm the property right next to Havelock Rd.
“We can’t spray because the spray drift goes on to the road and people complain about that, and the same [thing happens] when we are irrigating.
“We definitely can’t work tractors at night, we get noise complaint guys come and see us and say there is [too much] noise.
“So we are really being squeezed out, for want of a better word.
“The Strawberry Patch was a successful business but it has got harder and harder and harder.”
He said there were also campgrounds close by that were not there when he farmed the properties.
Manning said he and his wife had approached Hastings District Council about the potential of rezoning the land in future.
“I know they like to keep a green belt [between Havelock and Hastings] but it is near impossible to farm that block anymore,” he said.
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“We have been approached by at least four old people’s homes who want to build an old people’s home there.”
He said development of that type would result in more rates for the council and that it made a lot of sense, with the footpath leading straight into Havelock North and the new supermarket.
He said that unfortunately, the circle of land becoming a green belt is “a great idea, but in practicality it doesn’t work”.
He claimed the land would sell for a similar amount whether he sold it presently as three separate lifestyle blocks or in the future as one rezoned title.
The land was submitted for consideration for the draft Napier-Hastings Future Development Strategy (FDS), which essentially outlines large sections that could be developed in future.
Inclusion in that strategy would be a first step to having the land developed.
However, Hastings District Council did not deem it a “preferred area for development” and it has been left out of the draft FDS.
“The assessment is against multiple criteria required to consider for development. Highly Productive Land is one, but not the only consideration,” a council spokeswoman said.
It could still be included in the FDS if an independent panel recommends it during considerations at the end of this month.
However, the council would still get final sign-off.
Save Our Plains spokesman Richard Gaddum said he opposed any further development of the Havelock North-Hastings green belt.
“We have to draw a line in the soil and say enough is enough,” Gaddum said.
“We can’t just keep doing this to please landowners who may want to exit and gain a premium for it, or developers who might want to get land that is suitable for housing or industrial developments.”
In 2017, 19 hectares of land between Havelock Rd and Howard St on the edge of Hastings – which was part of the green belt – was rezoned from Plains Productive to General Residential (with appeals resolved in 2019).
That area is currently being developed, and last week Cranford Hospice announced it had conditionally bought one of the sections to build its new hospice near Parkvale School.
“We have got to have a green space between Havelock and Hastings, that is on highly fertile soil,” Gaddum said.
“Howard St [rezoning] shouldn’t have gone ahead, that was a travesty.”
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.