Four property owners battling a piggery being set up next door have taken their fight to Chief Ombudsman Sir Brian Elwood.
Greg Creighton, Holly and Iain Robinson, Darcy McDonald and Pat Thomson bought 2ha blocks less than two years ago but did not know a commercial piggery, with 400 pigs, couldbe established next door.
The issue is over how many pigs constitute a piggery and whether a 1996 law applies. But the rules cover only new piggeries, and as a piggery has operated on and off at the property, the council ruled that it qualified for existing-use rights.
The council's definition of piggery could include any number of pigs between one and 500.
