Landowners will deny access to informal trails if a Queenstown Lakes District Council plan change is not amended, Wanaka high-country farmer John Aspinall told the Environment Court in Queenstown yesterday.
Mr Aspinall, of Mt Aspiring Station, appeared in support of an appeal by Federated Farmers against the council's Plan Change 28, which amends the district plan's definition of public places to exclude trails.
The plan defines trails as any public access route legally created by an easement registered after December 11, 2007, excluding easements created by tenure review.
Mr Aspinall said the objective of the plan was to enhance opportunities for public access by removing disincentives for landowners.
However, it should also exclude informal trails and those created by tenure review.
He said farmers were unlikely to give legal status to trails because it would be easier to close the informal trail and deny access.
He said the plan change was "very narrow and not logical".
It discriminated against farmers who had given informal access to their land, or who had created trails through tenure review.
He was concerned about informal trails and trails created under tenure review being part of public place provisions because any proposed development on adjacent land would be assessed for its impact on public views from the trails.
He said it would become expensive and time-consuming if the council used some trails as public places to assess resource consent applications for farming activities.
He estimated 80,000 people accessed his land at a cost of $3000 every year.
"There are many examples on my own property where people have acted in a way that has impacted on our personal business operations: cattle beast shot, sheep stolen, fences and gates damaged, thefts from vehicles and vandalism," he said.
Guy Mead, of Dingleburn Station, said if tracks continued to be considered public places it would impact on station owners' ability to develop their farm in the future.
Federated Farmers counsel Phil Page said the organisation supported walking trails not being classed as public places.
However, the plan change did not go far enough as Federated Farmers wanted the plan change to include trails created out of tenure review, informal trails and those created before December 11, 2007.
Judge Jon Jackson and commissioners Charles Manning and Heather McConachy reserved their decision.
