Firefighter’s deportation battle

A petition to help a Nelson volunteer firefighter stay in the country has topped 40,000 signatures.

The plight of Steve Webster and his family gained national attention when he was photographed while helping fight the Pigeon Valley forest fire in Nelson in February.

The petition was created three weeks ago for Webster and his family, who arrived in New Zealand from Britain in 2012. They entered the country on an entrepreneur work visa, with the hopes of later being gaining residence.

Started by friend and former volunteer firefighter colleague Ken Mahon, the petition closed yesterday and will be sent to Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway.

The petition said the family faced deportation. However, Immigration NZ manager Michael Carley said Webster and his family were here legally and that he and his wife’s work visas were valid until July 6. ‘‘There is no compliance action planned against the family as they’re all lawfully in New Zealand.’’

Nelson MP Nick Smith said the family had been in limbo for the past seven years, having only being able to secure temporary work visas. He said the issue with the visas stemmed back to their initial online purchase of a florist business in Nelson. To be able to apply for residency, their business needed to meet cashflow and growth projections.

However, on arriving in New Zealand, it became clear the business had not been as successful as advertised, and the family had paid far too much for it, Smith said.

Smith said the Websters ‘‘spent considerable time and money rebuilding the business which when they took ownership had been operating on reduced hours, with virtually no stock and had to rebuild its customer base’’.

‘‘While they haven’t reached the original target their business has stabilised – they’ve done as much as anyone could have.’’