Ag 15 may 2017

Page 1

Monday, May 15, 2017

Since Sept 27, 1879

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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY

A step back in time Doing it the old-fashioned way with horses and traction engines, Darryl Nelson forks a sheaf of oats into a chaff cutter during a vintage machinery working day at the Plains Museum.

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PHOTOS

P9 PHOTO ROBYN HOOD 130517-RH-109

Ambulance service boost P4

Water bottling plant still on radar BY SUE NEWMAN

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Cook breaks sprint record P24

If the Silver Fern Plant at Fairton is closed, not only will hundreds of jobs be lost but a large cluster of buildings and consents to extract almost 6 billion litres of water a year will be looking for new owners. And that could see the Ashburton District plunged back into a row over the right of a business to use the district’s water for commercial gain. On-going fears the plant could be closed were fuelled last week when the company called a paid staff meeting for Wednesday. Management were tightlipped on the reason for the meeting. Rumours that the plant could be up for closure have been circulating for some time, bolstered by the loss of the bobby calf kill to Pareora two years ago and the failure of the plant’s second chain to start this season. Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, there

is now speculation that the site could have a new future as a water bottling plant. Anti-water sale campaigners say this has happened in other parts of New Zealand and with consents already in place along with a rail siding, Fairton would make an ideal conversion site. One company that won’t be chasing the option is NZ Pure Blue. Last year this company was involved in a protracted wrangle to buy land in Ashburton’s North East business park for a water bottling venture, but the land’s owner, the Ashburton District Council, canned the deal at the 11th hour. The potential sale attracted huge community opposition. At the time, the company’s managing director, Roydon Hartnett, said he was disappointed the Ashburton deal had not gone through. He then transferred his interest to a North Island site, with that plant now close to completion. When contacted by the Guardian yesterday, Hartnett said he had not lost

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interest in Ashburton, but he wouldn’t be chasing down a deal on the Fairton plant. “It was on our radar originally because we knew at some point the works would be terminal, but we’re not interested now. It would not be a marketer’s dream, imagine explaining that you were drawing water from an ex-freezing works,” he said. The works site might not be on his radar, but Hartnett said he was still interested in Ashburton and still interested in the original site, Lot 9. “We haven’t discounted Ashburton. I still believe it’s the perfect opportunity. We’ll do our North Island plant first but I’d still love to do Ashburton; there are a couple of hundred jobs in it. It’s an amazing place and we’d still like to bring employment there.” Hartnett said that the six wells were consented for the extraction of almost 6 billion litres of water.

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