Selwyn Times: June 13, 2017

SELWYN TIMES Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Tuesday June 13 2017 7
News
Ratepayers to pay for fence
• By Georgia O’Connor-
Harding
A CONTROVERSIAL ratepayerfunded
fence at Flock Hill
Station has been given the
go-ahead.
The Selwyn Waihora Zone
Committee has reconfirmed its
decision to allocate $26,571 of
its Immediate Steps Biodiversity
Funding to section off a part of
Cave Stream and 35ha wetlands
at the station.
The zone initially
approved
allocating
$44,236 to the
project in March
but has since
reviewed its
Allen Lim
decision.
It comes
after an
application by Flock Hill’s
leaseholder Flock Hill Holdings,
owned by Jim Foster and Vince
Saunders of Los Angeles-based
Coast Range New Zealand, was
made.
It proposed fencing off Cave
Stream as a way of mitigating
the associated loss of biodiversity
on the terraces.
The landowners will
contribute $22,000 towards the
project.
A final decision on the funding
was held off at the zone’s
May meeting after concerns
more research needed to be done
on the project.
About five zone committee
members travelled to Cave
Stream last month to visit the
site.
The funding has since been reduced
by $17,665 after the Flock
Hill Station owners decided it
wanted funding only for stage
one and two of the project and
not stage three.
A ECan report said a revised
farm plan deemed contribution
stage three as not viable longterm.
Zone committee chairman Allen
Lim said stage three was the
most controversial and costly
part of the project covering the
Cave Stream terraces.
At the meeting, a verbal vote
on the funding was made by
each of the zone committee
members.
No objections were made.
Mr Lim said the zone was
comfortable with the project
protecting rare species and
would have most likely approved
all stages.
Selwyn Times reported in
April the project was recommended
by ECan’s own ecologist
Dr Phillip Grove that it was not
funded.
Forest & Bird conservation
GREEN LIGHT:
The Selwyn
Waihora water
zone committee
have confirmed
it will allocate
$26,571 of its
Immediate
Steps
Biodiversity
Funding to a
controversial
ratepayerfunded
fencing
project at Flock
Hill Station.
advocate Nicky Snoyink said
while she found the public
money being spent on American
investors hard to stomach, she
is pleased the fence will not go
through DOC’s recommended
area of protection.
“We feel these landscapes are
really vulnerable because there is
a big push to farm every little bit
of flat area available in the high
country,” she said.
•HAVE YOUR SAY: What do
you think of the approval to
a ratepayer-funded fencing
project at Flock Hill Station?
Email your views to georgia.
oconnor@starmedia.kiwi
Lincoln High
evacuated
• By Julia Evans
LINCOLN HIGH School was
evacuated yesterday morning
after reports of a student making
a “threatening remark” against
the school.
Police attended after being notified
by the school that a student
had reported a “concerning conversation”
with another student.
The school sent out a text alert
to parents about an “incident at
school” at 9.54am.
It said the school was “dealing
with an incident” and students
had been evacuated to the field as
a precaution.
Parents were not required to
come and pick up their students.
The police spoke to the parties
involved and the incident was
resolved.
Police said they take any reports
of this nature seriously and
thanked staff and students for
their patience.
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