Council is told goats and gardens don’t mix
Hungry horses chewing holes in his hedge and greedy goats foraging in his fruit trees have sometimes left Rowan Chadwick feeling under seige in his own home.
So he is asking for bylaw covering urban horses and goats to be strengthened so anyone seeking to keep the animals in town sections first needs the permission of their neighbours.
Chadwick’s plea, to be considered by the South Taranaki District Council today, comes after his hedge was damaged by horses and escaped stock destroyed several of his trees.
‘‘I feel like a prisoner in my own property. This sort of carry-on has been going on for years now and needs to be rectified immediately,’’ he wrote in a submission to the council when it revised its Keeping of Animals bylaws earlier this year.
There have been animals grazing next door to Chadwick’s Pa¯ tea home for years and although some owners were considerate, others left fences in disrepair and piles of droppings that brought hordes of flies. Chadwick has lived on the property since 2000 and has an orchard of apple, pear, plum, peach and nectarine trees and a huge avocado.
At times his hedge has been damaged by horses, and he even won damages in court against a previous neighbour who owned the stock, he said. Although it’s quiet on the border at present, he wants the council to ensure its revised bylaw governing grazing animals on urban sections will protect neighbouring property owners.
‘‘I don’t mind cattle and sheep but no horses or goats,’’ he said.
In October, submissions on the bylaw from the public were heard by councillors, but Chadwick’s, handed in to the council on September 18, was misplaced.
His missing submission was discovered by council staff on November 13 and the council decided to revisit the bylaw review so his views were included.
South Taranaki District Council regulatory services manager Doug Scott said the revised bylaw would be discussed and hopefully approved by councillors today.
One change to be included in the bylaw was an appeals process along with the requirement that people get council permission before they could graze animals in an urban area, he said.
There were pockets of land in the district’s smaller towns where urban and rural living overlapped and some people liked to have a few sheep grazing a vacant section, he said.
‘‘It’s not such a problem in Ha¯ wera itself, although there is a guy who walks his pet sheep through town.’’