Horse trail gains support
A petition to have horses on the Hauraki Rail Trail has now amassed more than 700 signatures.
Its creator, Te Aroha West local Leanne Richardson said receiving an ‘‘overwhelming’’ amount of supporters speaks volumes.
‘‘We are well and truly over 700 and it just keeps on climbing. They [the signatures] are from everywhere and everyone’s supporting it,’’ Richardson said.
Launched in December 2019, the petition is for horse riders to have access to the Hauraki Rail Trail as well as cyclists and walkers. Richardson said she has given a copy of the petition to Hauraki Rail Trail Trust CEO Diane Drummond and plans to give the petition to the MatamataPiako District Council as well.
At last count, the petition had received around 743 online signatures, which was above and beyond what Richardson was expecting.
Whangarei horse owner Monique MacKenzie was among those eager to sign the petition.
While she lives nowhere near the Hauraki Rail Trail, she thinks there should be more tracks for horse riders in New Zealand.
‘‘Closing all these places to us is making it more difficult and far more expensive for the owners,’’ MacKenzie said.
In the past, she said, she has fought against Whangarei District Council several times to maintain horse rider friendly tracks and beach access.
‘‘When the NZ cyclists came through and said they wanted to make the old paper tracks into a cycleway farmers and horse riders got involved and said we had no problems sharing it but you cannot take it away from us . . . and long story short we won. We also used to be able to ride horses on the beaches up here. A few of us horse people fought to have access again by putting submissions forward to Council. We ended up getting our beaches back.’’
A Matamata-Piako District Council spokesperson said there are rules concerning the whole Hauraki Rail Trail, which need to be consistent across Matamata-Piako, Hauraki and Thames Coromandel Districts.
‘‘The cycleway is a 24/7 shared use pathway for cyclists and walkers, but at this stage there are no plans to extend it to include horses,’’ the spokesperson said.
Some Council reserves are leased to equestrian groups but these tend to be used for equestrian sports rather than trail riding, she said.
‘‘Over the past five years we have consulted the public on our Open Spaces Strategy, District Sport and Recreation Plan, General Policies for Reserves and our Long Term Plan, and none of those processes have identified a demand for horse trails in our district.