Thread: The future of Rifle Ranges.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

In the form "application for certification of a shooting range" in section I item 1 is "I declare that all the information is true and correct"
item 2 is"I declare I have the necessary territorial and regional council consents to operate the shooting range"

This is where it comes unstuck in my opinion.
How many clubs and ranges have any idea if they have such things, and asking councils may well open a can of worms no one would like to deal with.
When this came up for submission I did some background, shooting clubs are not considered in the district plan so a discretionary rather than permitted activity.
Regarding section 10 of the RMA (grandfather clause) use of this to meet obligations was considered unlikely as the operation results in "discharge to air and ground" therefore a full consent would be required. The cost of these requirements based on a project carried out locally in 2017 which was discretionary and therefore notifiable would likely be in the vicinity of $52,000 and opposed it's inclusion.
You are being asked to sign a legal document, what are people doing in regards to this if they don't know their status.

The New RMA act that is being pushed through at the moment states that councils wont have to take "previous use" into consideration in the future district plans, so that can mean that ranges that have been in safe operation for 50 plus years could be closed down.
COLFO and NZDA both put in submissions on this issue.

Lastly there has only been talk about centrefire type ranges on this thread. Target shooting NZ have smallbore ranges in halls all over NZ and since police have brought in their new range regulations, a lot of them will be getting closed due to being unable to comply with the new police range templates that they must now adhere to.