By Adam Hollingworth
Plans to force farmers to get permits to move stock across Waikato roads have been watered down but dairy farmers will still have to pay for underpasses.
Farmers, concerned they would face huge bills to comply with regulations, went to a council meeting in convoy and councillors took heed of some of their demands, but not all.
Rosemarie Costar may have left her real life cows at home in Onewhero but leading the convoy to Ngaruawahia her message was that she was not going to put up with any bull.
Farmers from the former Franklin District have complained that they will have to get permits to move livestock and also pay $100,000 for underpasses to move them under the road.
The council plans to centre on road safety, road preservation and health.
But with 100 farmers breathing down their necks, councillors were prepared to make concessions, such as:
- They will waive their permit fee until further notice
- The deadline for building the underpasses will be pushed back two years to 2018
- Beef and sheep farmers who intermittently use gravel won't have to have a permit.
- Councillors have also removed the need to seal existing entrances under plans that would have cost around $5000 per gate
“I'm sure I think the farmers will accept the outcome at the end of the day. You'll never please everyone that will always be the case but I think we're moving to accommodate most of the submissions that have been made,” say acting Mayor Dynes Fulton.
But dairy farmers will still all need to get a permit and they will still all need to build underpasses as originally envisaged - except in the boggy area of Aka Aka.
Federated Farmers is furious at the outcome.
“They've thrown a few crumbs at us and hoped that they'd appease us. I don't think there was any farmer in that room today who felt comfortable with the decisions they were making,” says Wendy Clark of the Federated Farmers.
The council will dot the I’s and cross the T’s of its decisions at a meeting in a fortnight .
3 News