Hawke's Bay: Industrial sprawl on fertile soil 'economic madness'

Part of a large apple orchard (above) will be removed to make way for an inland port project. Photo / Supplied

We are a group of businesspeople, orchardists and concerned citizens who feel very strongly that far too much of our fertile soils and land is being swallowed up by concrete and asphalt with urban and industrial sprawl creeping over the Heretaunga Plains at an alarming rate.

This unsustainable vandalism has got to stop. We can't keep killing the Golden Goose that feeds us just because it's the easiest short-term option.

Covering the best soils in the world with industrial development is economic madness. The plan to put an inland port at Whakatu on prime fertile land on the Heretaunga Plains is ludicrous.

This land has been designated industrial in the 2017 Heretaunga Plains Urban Development Strategy (HPUDS) so all three councils (HDC, NCC and HBRC) feel justified to expand this area for more industrial development but it is not the right approach. There is other unproductive land which would be better suited for such an industrial initiative.

Whakatu has always been a egregiously poor planning decision, located on exceptionally good soils. The best of our soils on the plains are to the north and east of Hastings, where the Ngaruroro River laid down rich alluvial deposits for thousands of years.

As you get closer to the coast the risk of frosts also reduces. A big part of our history and our future will be based on our capacity to produce food on this land.

Whakatu is soil type LUC1 - the best growing soil there is. We have only 0.7 per cent LUC1 soils in NZ so they are a rare and precious resource. If you overlay that with low frost risk, a benign climate, lots of sunshine, modest rainfall (i.e. <1000mm PA) great infrastructure, you can see that the Heretaunga Plains is the best place in NZ and in the world, to grow food. In LUC1 areas you can grow ANYTHING with unlimited potential. This is why versatile soils are so valuable as they allow for the highest and best use of land.

We are not opposed to an inland port but what is wrong with putting this inland port in an area where there are poorer quality soils?

In 2020, we find that councils haven't learnt anything... We're still making the same mistakes again and again. There's an old biblical saying: "A fool doing the same thing twice is like a dog going back to its own vomit".

Our Save our Plains group is looking to the future protection of our soils for our children, grandchildren and generations to come. We are struggling to understand these appalling planning consents that have been granted by successive councils. The most recent ones being the Ryman retirement village being constructed on Te Aute Rd and a new coolstore on Pakowhai Rd.

We have just presented our concerns to all three councils. We have been trying to change the mindset of these three councils so we protect the soils and land on the Plains. We find it frustrating to be greeted with nodding heads in agreement with our cause, yet they are all complicit in what can only describe as environmental and economic vandalism.

Although past councils have put urban and industrial development a priority over and above the soils below them, we believe the prime objective needs to change to our soils and the water that feeds the food that grows in them. This is just basic common sense. Concrete is a one-way crop! Once the land is developed we have lost it forever.

The Save our Plains group will work to stop these kinds of activities and not idly stand by and witness the systematic destruction of the Plains.

* Submitted by Save the Plains Action Group: Richard Gaddum, Paul Paynter, Mike Donnelly and John Bostock.