Have Your Say - with a collective voice we will be heard!

CABLE BAY RIFLE, PISTOL AND SHOTGUN RANGES

As most local shooters know, it is becoming more difficult to find places to sight in and practise. The Motueka Range used to be available to all shooters but despite the Pistol Club holding a legally valid lease, when the property was sold in 2007 the new owner, an Englishman named Ray Foxley, took extensive steps to close the range and finally did so under a technicality that he now owned the wooded backdrop which was the safety zone.

Sharon and Bruce Harvey spent over $40,000 in 2008 fighting to keep the Cable Bay ranges open, and now adhere to many restrictions placed by Nelson City Council and ratified by the Environment Court. The Harveys held the national 3 gun championships on their property last Labour Weekend. None of the restrictions were broken during the shoot but four neighbours have now asked Nelson City Council to take the case back to the Environment Court.

Of these neighbours, only one is a Kiwi who lives on a lifestyle block adjacent to the property. He bought his property in full knowledge of the shooting.

The remaining three new neighbours own gorse-covered lifestyle sections without a dwelling house. These three are from England, Scotland and America. It is understood that at least one of them only intends to build a holiday home.

The Harveys run cattle and sheep on 660 hectares of steep country, some still in native bush, and the gun ranges are a valuable part of their rural income. The shooting facilities are equally valuable both to local hunters and to adventure tourism, and are used by around 2,500 shooters each year.

Bruce Harvey's father has had a rifle range on the property since 1952. Should new immigrants have the power to buy a lifestyle block and then impose their overseas, city-based standards on their neighbours' pre-existing rural traditions? If you think not, our legislature needs to know your views.

Please pick up a sample letter from us, and either send it, or write with your own concerns, to protect all our shooting rights. Remember, in all countries these rights are steadily, quietly being taken away.

What Nelson City Council wants to do is:

1) stop all shooting on Sundays  

2) force the owners to be in attendance during any shooting, including shooting by other firearm licence holders

3) Stop anyone (including the property owners) from shooting anywhere on the 660 hectare property, apart from the marked area which constitutes the commercial rifle range, and pistol range.

Should they succeed it will set a precedent for all landowners and farmers across NZ.

LETTERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THE AUTHORITIES DO NOT KNOW HOW STRONGLY WE FEEL UNLESS WE TELL THEM.

For more information including sample letters and the details on who you can write to, contact Nelson Hunting & Fishing on nelson.hunting-fishing@paradise.net.nz or phone 03 548 1840