Following a request from a local member, FMC has acted to oppose another private road being planned to dissect the mountainous spine of the Coromandel on a non-notified basis.
The road, would pass through the Whangapoua Conservation Area, one of the areas FMC is campaigning to see protected as part of its Forgotten Lands campaign.
As with an earlier, and still outstanding, concession for a private road through Coromandel State Forest Park near Waitaia Bay, the need for a private road seems purely driven by short-term economic gain – private profit, with in both cases, alternative, albeit slightly longer access roads or routes available. FMC does not see why long-term conservation and recreation values should be secondary to the pursuit of private profit and is urging DOC to properly consider: the environmental and recreational values, the purpose for which this land is held, Conservation General Policy and the Waikato Conservation Management Strategy and decline this application.
If the application is not to be declined outright, it would seem more than appropriate for a publicly notified process to take place. View FMC’s full letter to DOC here: please decline private road through Whangapoua forest.
