Organic farmer objects to road extension

Landowner Diana Handley believes the proposed design for a new stretch of road connecting State Highway 3 to Waiinu Beach will be extremely unsafe.

The proposed design for a new stretch of road connecting State Highway 3 to Waiinu Beach will be extremely unsafe, affected landowner Diana Handley says.

South Taranaki District Council wants to take 4.5ha of her organic dairy farm to extend Nukumaru Station Rd. The extension would be a more secure route to Waiinu Beach and the Silver Fern Farms Waitotara meatworks than the current Waiinu Beach Rd.

Miss Handley is the only landowner objecting to the proposal.

She has employed Christchurch-based planner and landscape architect Di Lucas. The two presented an alternative route for the road extension at a resource consent hearing on August 7, but have been told it cannot be considered.

Miss Handley was brought up on Rapanui Rd, near Whanganui, which she said had become "very very unsafe".

The extension would suddenly increase the number of vehicles on Nukumaru Station Rd from 30 a day to 500. She fears Nukumaru Station Rd will become as unsafe as Rapanui Rd.

Her alternative route has better visibility at its intersection with SH3, and there are no houses along it. Instead of running between her farm and David Hopkins' farm it would run between his farm and the railway line.

It's slightly longer, and she's been told it has been disregarded because it will cost more.

She has been offered the current road area in return for giving up her land, but said that land was unlikely to meet organic standards for her high performing dairy farm.

It produces organic milk for Fonterra - the type that fetches the highest export prices of any.

She has resented the implication from council staff that the road is a fait accompli, and said consultation at the Nukumaru end has been lacking.

She was not the only one who has objected, but said the others have all been "talked around".