Marae burials nod upsets neighbours

Approval for a new marae to have a cemetery on its grounds has angered nearby residents.

After a day-long resource consent hearing last month, an independent commissioner yesterday gave permission for the cemetery on Taumata O Te Ra marae at Halcombe, 14km northwest of Palmerston North.

But local residents said they may appeal.

Pat Openshaw, who lives across the road from the proposed site, said she was in shock.

She and other residents were looking at what it would take to challenge the decision.

"If it's going to cost a lot of money, then I can't afford that," said Mrs Openshaw, who has lived in the village for 30 years.

"We are not the guilty people here. We have done nothing wrong."

Another neighbour, Margaret Hirst, said the decision took Maori beliefs into account but ignored those of other residents.

Twenty-five of the 26 submissions received on the application were from neighbours objecting to the cemetery.

They said they did not want to live with dead bodies over the road or around the corner, and feared extra noise and traffic congestion from having a cemetery at the marae.

But the commissioner hearing the application said the cemetery would not harm the environment and was not against the relevant objectives of the district plan.

However, he put a number of conditions on the consent, including a 2m-high fence.

George Kereama, who presented the application for Ngati Manomano, said he was happy with the decision.

The application was complicated by the fact that whanau rangatira Pikikotuku Kereama was illegally buried on the marae site on November 30, at the insistence of the family, before any of the required permissions were obtained.

- NZPA