Extension to Dargaville chicken farm submission deadline rejected by councils

Two protest marches have been held in Dargaville to protest against Tegel Food's plan to set up a broiler chicken farm at Arapohue. Photo / Michael Cunningham

People should support a massive chicken farm near Dargaville as it will provide much needed jobs and income, a Kaipara resident says.

The Northland Regional and Kaipara District councils have rejected a request that the deadline for public submissions on the proposed broiler chicken farm be extended.

A written request was sent by Carol Donovan to the NRC on behalf of those opposed to Tegel Food's plan for a chicken farm with more than 1.2 million chooks in Arapohue, just outside Dargaville.

She said more time should be given for the public to understand more than 1000 pages of technical information Tegel submitted to the NRC and KDC in its resource consent applications.

But not everyone in the area is against the plan. Painter/decorator Clyde Forbes said factory-oriented industries were needed because a lot of people were not well-educated.

"Farming, kumara and Silver Fern Farms are not going to sustain the local economy because most of them offer seasonal work only. Any production-oriented industry that comes to Dargaville should be welcomed," he said.

Mr Forbes said young people in Dargaville looked to Whangarei or Auckland for job prospects while the community was divided over what business ventures should operate in their town.

His message to the protesters: "Look at your community. Do you want it to grow or sink? Tegel operates their business around the world and environment issues are well taken care of," he said.

Submissions close tomorrow. At 4.30pm yesterday, KDC had received 298 submissions on the plan. NRC could not supply submission figures by edition time.

NRC consents manager Stuart Savill said it was not necessary to read the whole application including technical documents to make a submission. There was also no requirement to provide technical reasons or even any discussion in the submission.

While he accepted the public notice could have provided a description on the scale of the development, it was not required under the Resource Management Act.

A public march to oppose Tegel's proposal was held in Dargaville town on Thursday and another yesterday with about 60 people in attendance.