Views vary on draft law

A draft law to make the Waitakere Ranges a national heritage area received a mixed response at a public meeting in Auckland last night.

While some speakers praised the draft bill for the protection it would give the ranges, foothills and coast, others said it was either too strong or too vague on how it would affect their living environment and activities.

One Titirangi resident questioned the need for a law at all.

Holding up a 1950 aerial photograph of his neighbourhood, he said comparing the former sorry scene of cut-over forest with the bush-clad hills of today showed that "nature has done a great job on its own".

MP Dail Jones said if Waitakere City Council wanted to reduce subdivision of land, it should do so through its District Plan rather than rely on Parliament to solve the problem.

But the city council's ranges project leader, Graeme Campbell, said the Government had invited Waitakere and the Auckland Regional Council to prepare the bill.

The ARC will debate the bill today.