Carterton furore on silage rule

A former councillor was thrown out of a heated public meeting yesterday as a hotly debated silage bylaw was passed by Carterton District Council.
Dairy farmer Chris Engel was ordered to leave the meeting by Mayor Ron Mark, after he filmed the beginning of the proceedings on his cellphone without permission.
The former Carterton councillor had already been warned twice for interrupting the meeting, with a woman shown the door soon after for refusing to be silent.
The feisty meeting brought to a conclusion a long-running saga over the siting of silage pits and stacks in the district, with the council opting to approve a watered-down version of the initial plan yesterday afternoon.
The new law means from September 12 all silage pits and stacks will have to be located 100m back from any neighbouring residential unit under separate ownership, and 5m away from any boundary shared with a neighbour.
The feeding out of silage is also banned within 5m of any neighbour's boundary, although all provisions can be waived if agreed to by both neighbours.
The bylaw was approved by councillors, with the exception of two - Councillor Brian Poulsen, who was absent, and Councillor Grant Smith, who chose to exclude himself from the proceedings.
However, there was still time for controversy following the passing of the legislation, when Mr Engel's son, Philip, was asked to leave the council chambers following a further interruption.
Rural councillor John Booth said he was glad the contentious issue had finally been dealt with.
"At the end of the day, none of us wanted a bylaw but there were some people who were really being affected by silage stacks," Mr Booth said.
"But unless you're really trying to annoy your neighbour then you won't have any problems at all.
"You won't even need to talk to your neighbours, you can just carry on as normal."
He said the original draft was draconian, and he and other councillors had worked hard to change the wording after listening to the concerns of farmers, silage contractors and smallholders.
Originally, the council considered forcing the silage pits and stacks back 150m from any residential dwelling, with feeding out to be forced 50m back from the fence line.
That was amended to 100m and 5m respectively.
All mentions of water sources and wetlands were also removed from the bylaw, as well as a provision to set back silage stacks from road boundaries.
Baleage is not covered by the bylaw.
The legislation was proposed in response to a well-known dispute between the Engels on one side and several of their neighbours on the other, most notably Carole Fathers and Joyce Campin.
The latter claim silage pits were sited deliberately close to their houses, while the Engels have always maintained they acted in line with best farming practices.