New motor camp plan

Press, 22 April 1986, Page 9

New motor camp plan

Plans to develop a camper van motor camp on Sawyers Arms Road may leave young people with no place to ride motor-cycles. If approved by the Waimairi District Council, the camp would use about 2.2 hectares of undeveloped land at the corner of Sawyers Arms Road and Johns Road. A Waimairi District Council honorary ranger, Mr John Bennett, said about 40 young people used the land each week-end, riding trail bikes. The ground was undeveloped, but had a motor-cycle track and mounds of earth where

young trail-bike riders practised, he said. Mr Bennett plans to set up a petition this weekend asking the Waimairi Council to keep the ground for young people to use. Failing that, the petition would ask the council to provide other land for the motorcyclists. He will be at the land between 11 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with his petition. The Waimairi District Council’s town-planning department said that people for or against the plan had until May 2 to lodge submissions. The plan would then be dealt

with by the council. The council knew of a BMX track on the land but had not heard that trail-bike riders also used it. It leased the BMX track land from the landowner, the North Canterbury Catchment Board. The developer of the motor camp proposal, Mr K. V. Ellis, was proposing a two-stage or three-stage development with first a camper van park, cabins and amenities. The second stage would be a swimming pool complex and deer park, the council said. The plans were all available for the public to view at the council's townplanning office.