Fresh salvos have been fired in the battle for access to the Hunter River after the announcement yesterday a Queenstown Lakes District Council hearings panel has recommended a five-knot speed restriction be removed, effectively giving jet-boaters access to the river for six months of each year.
The council will be asked to approve the recommendation at a meeting in Queenstown on Tuesday, and representatives from opposing anglers and jet-boating organisations say they will be there.
Jet Boating New Zealand Southland rivers officer Eddie McKenzie said yesterday he was not celebrating yet, but believed the hearing panel had made the correct recommendation.
"It is about sharing," he said.
Otago Fish and Game Council chief executive Niall Watson said it was absurd to think the river could be shared.
Jet-boats would displace recreational anglers from the last wilderness area in the South Island where passive recreation could be enjoyed.
Many people opposed jet-boat access to the river, he said.
Mr McKenzie said the Hunter River area was no longer the last bastion of the South Island wilderness experience, as aircraft landed there regularly on airstrips and commercial fishing guides had been seen buzzing other river users in helicopters.
Opposition was being driven by commercial anglers wanting to keep the river for themselves, Mr McKenzie said.
In its district plan several years ago, the council recommended allowing jet-boats into the Hunter River, but that access has been effectively denied because of a five-knot speed restriction on the river.
The low speed limit prevents motorised craft negotiating the bar at the mouth of the river, a tributary of Lake Hawea.
The speed limit had to be addressed in a review of all the district's navigational safety bylaws.
Wanaka Community Board chairman Lyal Cocks, who was on the navigational safety bylaws hearings panel, said yesterday he did not believe any evidence had been presented showing it was unsafe to jet-boat on the Hunter River.
The environmental impacts of jet-boats on the river had already been determined by the council before he was elected.
If people wanted to stop jet-boating, they had to apply for a review of the district plan, Cr Cocks said.
"It is now about a safety bylaw, although I do feel for people who have misunderstood or had false expectations," Cr Cocks said.
Cr Cocks accepted his views were not shared by the majority of the Wanaka Community Board, which in February voted in favour of keeping the five-knot restriction.
Mr Watson said he was surprised the hearings panel had taken a different approach to that of the Wanaka Community Board.
Queenstown Lakes District Council corporate and regulatory general manager Roger Taylor said in a media release yesterday the hearings panel had to weigh the issue of safety versus amenity.
