If you want to introduce personal slights into the discussion, thats fine wont hurt my feelings, maybe hopefully there will be a day when your eyes can see with some maturity and balance. It matters not whether its a farmer a developer or American billionaire whos applied to close part of a public road the principal is the same 'public land becoming private land at the stroke of a pen' Now Brads, some condescending maths for you a roadway is surveyed 20mtrs wide which means every 500 mtrs of road is one hectare. How much is say two hectares of land in the area of the track worth ?
Here's my submission, if that helps anybody else. This access stuff must be protected (and access improved) where ever possible. Everyone needs to be vigilant and stand up for it constantly if we're to keep access to public land - once it's gone it's gone.
You can find an email address to send similar to my submission if you want, on the council link here. Don't be a bystander and watch our access disappear.I'm writing to submit my strong opposition to the removal of the paper road as mentioned here:
https://www.mdc.govt.nz/news/2022/ro...-of-opawe-road
Paper roads have protections and access rights that cannot be changed. An easement or pathway is not the same thing. I particularly consider hunters here, as firearms can be problematic - but with a road, they are legal. By all means, move the paper road to follow the better route, but don't have it as an easement or pathway, but as a paper road - like for like.
Our backcountry is already hard enough to get to due to poor foresight from planners of the past - particularly the Ruahine ranges. To remove any kind of level of access permissions or right for the future is incredibly short-sighted for all backcountry recreation and conservation users. Surely a moved paper road with the same legal protections as the current, to follow a more sensible curve will satisfy both parties. As a country it boggles my mind that we continue to facilitate single landowners limiting (in any way, however small) the other 5 million of us's access to our forest ranges.
I hope the council makes the right call for the future.
https://www.mdc.govt.nz/news/2022/ro...-of-opawe-road
Bookmarks