Push for inner city beehives

BEE FRIENDLY: Beehives should be permitted within Wanganui, Neil Farrer says. Photo/File

There are at least 200 beehives on Wanganui city sections, and beekeepers would like it to stay that way.

The city's District Plan says beehives are not allowed within the city boundary unless they have resource consent. Mayor Annette Main, speaking at the National Apiculture Industry Conference last month, said that was a big imposition.

She wants changes made, as part of the district plan review process. "Wanganui is very proud of its gardens, but without bees we have nothing," she said in her speech.

Beekeepers have made submissions about allowing hives within the city, and will meet the mayor and council officers next week to talk about it.

Beekeeper Neil Farrer will be there, and said hives in the city were not a problem unless people got uptight about them or they played a part in personality clashes. Mostly people didn't know the hives were there.

He knew of two complaints about bees that the council has investigated. In one case there were too many hives, and when the number was reduced to one or two there was no problem. In the other the hive was removed, and when it was put back in another place later there was no problem.

A recent complaint from a Caversham Rd resident related to Wanganui Beekeepers' Club hives on Mark Christensen's large Springvale property. It is still unresolved.

Bees are permitted in urban Auckland, and Palmerston North has recently okayed one or two hives on a section, depending on its size. Hives could be placed so that fences and trees made the bees fly upward, rather than directly over neighbouring properties.

"This is the sort of thing we are trying to do in Wanganui, Mr Farrer said.