Farmer's plough back in action

A farmer who was stopped from ploughing some of his land because he did not have resource consent will be back tilling the soil this week.

Geoffrey Thomson, of Glenorchy, at the head of Lake Wakatipu, has been given consent to start ploughing again on Mt Earnslaw Station by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

His work was interrupted when exotic grasses on the property were mistaken for native tussock which, under a 2003 district plan change, he would have needed a resource consent to clear.

- NZPA