‘Pressure on farm land’

Press, 24 February 1977, Page 2

‘Pressure on farm land’

The best farming land, around Christchurch was in danger erf being sold for development, a meeting of the provincial executive of North Canterbury Federated Farmers was told yesterday. Dairy farmers and market . gardeners were under great pressure to sell their landl for urban development and' prices of up to SBOOO an; acre were being offered to; tempt landowners to sell, [ the meeting was told. The chairman of the dairy*

; section of the executive (Mr W. T. Simpson) said that farmers would, sooner or later, sell under such pressure. He said that there was a need for some “sane” planning so that the less valuable land in Canterbury was used for residential, I commercial and recreational development. I Other executive members 'agreed that pressure on Tanners to sell hundreds of acres of land had been I stepped up in the last six months. The meeting passed a

remit that the indicative plan report of the Regional Planning Authority be compared with the development policy of Federated Farmers, and that the conclusions be made known to the planners. It was also suggested that Federated Farmers should have a voice on the authority before decisions were made. The meeting decided to write to the authority to see if this could be done.

The authority had already agreed to talk to the executive about the plan, the meeting was told.