Change must consider people
It was encouraging to read Mayor David Ayers’ comments last week in the Northern Outlook regarding rural development and the need to ‘‘plan in new ways’’. However, there is a more immediate issue to address that must not be made to wait for governmental processes to grind through.
As Mayor Ayers says, there is no doubt that the current planning and zoning rules need an overhaul but we believe that should have happened as lifestyle blocks subdivisions were allowed to be created.
The Members of the Isaac Community Association (ICA) are residents who live next door to where a large quarry is being planned on Isaac Road - an area that, as Mr Ayers and others have admitted, is residential, not ‘‘rural’’.
The proposed location is on land that is part of the original lifestyle subdivision.
Although an application has yet to be submitted to the district council, the quarry will only be 50 metres from existing homes and is proposed to operate 6 days a week, for 24 hours a day and for most of that period producing noise, light, vibration, and dust.
This is in addition to the significant damage to roads from truck movements every seven and a half minutes.
Clearly this is far from reasonable, especially around children and where residents already have health challenges including respiratory issues.
Imagine it happening over your fence; it would be hellish.
We have no doubt that this proposal is about chasing the dollar for the benefit of the landowner and the quarry operator, ReadyMix.
While we have no issues with operating a business and making money, we do have an issue with doing it directly, unnecessarily and without empathy at the immediate expense of residents’ health, their daily lives and homes.
We call on the land-owners and Ready Mix to locate this quarry where it does not destroy people’s lives.
The land-owner has hundreds of hectares of land available so there is no shortage of alternative sites.
The Isaac Community Association will not back down from this matter.
We will do everything to ensure the homes, families and communities that have grown up in and cared for our region, are protected from industrial or commercial activity that is totally inappropriate for so many reasons, and will have a negative effect on our health and wellbeing. This is not just about us. This is a New Zealand-wide issue.
As New Zealanders, we need to unite and demand more from our councils.
Bud Caldwell, Spokesperson, Isaac Community Association