Council has solution — M.P.

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 14

Council has solution — M.P.

Parliamentary reporter The Paparua County Council held in its own hands the solution to the alleged nuisance posed by the Prebbleton Meadow Mushrooms factory, the member of Parliament for Selwyn, Miss Ruth Richardson, has said. Miss Richardson said that the common-sense answer was for the Paparua County Council to allow all composting to be done on the factory’s Wigram site in an area already zoned by the council for factory farming. The council seemed to need persuading that composting was an integral part of mushroom growing. “I

can assure it it is,” said Miss Richardson. Miss Richardson said that in her talks with residents she had found that noise was only a small part of the problem and that the main grievance was over composting. If all composting, both for the Prebbleton site and the Wigram site, were done at Wigram, the problem would largely disappear. Miss Richardson had met the council on May 30, and put the proposal. A council spokesman said last evening that the town planning committee had recommended a legal opinion on getting a declaratory judgment from the Planning Tribunal on

the composting as a permitted use in the factory farming zone. Miss Richardson said that declaratory judgments could take years to be made. The legal opinion was expected in about two weeks. Meadow Mushrooms has made application for a specified departure from the district scheme to allow increased growing capacity at Prebbleton, but with composting off site.” The company’s application for a specified departure has to be advised to about 250 residents, to allow objections to be filed. A hearing is more than six weeks away.