Dairy plan has B&B owner worried

A Darfield tourist operator says her bed and breakfast business will be devastated if a proposed $100m dairy factory is built next door.

The Oaks Historical Homestead owner Madeleine de Jong was told by Fonterra last week a dairy processing plant was proposed in one of three locations surrounding her heritage house, five kilometres west of Darfield.

"I burst into tears," she said yesterday. "It's going to be very hard for me as a tourism operator to sell the Canterbury Plains as clean and pure."

De Jong said the bed and breakfast was dependent on European eco-tourists, who stayed for tranquility and the historical value of the large heritage-list house, but already her biggest wholesaler in Holland has said it would not send her tourists if the factory was built.

Two of the sites proposed to her by Fonterra sit about 20m across the road facing her front verandah, while the other site would sit next to her house behind a grove of oak trees.

"My only option is to have a deflated property and no business."

De Jong said she was having another meeting with Fonterra next week but would fight any attempts to build a large plant near her home and business.

"It will be right there, lit up like a Christmas tree."

Fonterra has earmarked 600 hectares around the Racecourse Hill area for the factory, which it says is its first greenfields site development in 15 years. It is expected to process 2.2 million litres of milk a day, with potential to grow to 10 million litres a day, and will provide 50 new jobs for the area.

Fonterra has bought several small farms in the area, but it is understood most of the 600ha, including the proposed factory sites, will be bought from farmer Pete Morrison, the son of Central Plains Water Trust chairman Pat Morrison.

The trust is awaiting final approval for its controversial $178m irrigation scheme, which would allow more intensive farming, particularly dairy, in the Canterbury Plains.

Pat Morrison, who lives about a kilometre up the highway from the proposed factory sites, said there was no link between the irrigation scheme and Fonterra potentially buying part of his son's farm. "None of us had a clue," he said. "I only found out a few weeks ago when they approached my son."

He welcomed news of the Fonterra factory and said it would revitalise the community. "I've lived here all my life and it hasn't been a booming place ...We need more of a community."

Fonterra could not be reached for comment yesterday but has previously said the plains irrigation schemes only "indirectly" influenced its view on the area's dairying potential.

It has not yet lodged a consent application for the factory and is still consulting the community.

In the Darfield township most people who spoke to The Press were positive about the proposed factory.

Darfield CRT rural real estate consultant Chris Abbott said that on the morning the factory was announced he was inundated with calls from farmers wanting his take on the news.

"It's going to bring in new people and it's going to be good for local businesses," he said.

He also received calls from as far afield as Hamilton from people asking whether they should buy a rental property to take advantage of new families moving into Darfield.

Darfield ITM sales manager Gary Gifkins said he was not expecting much direct business from factory construction, but believed there would be a beneficial surge in residential construction with more people flowing into the town. "Business-wise it will be good for us," he said.

Two other Darfield residents, neither of whom wished to be named, said the factory would be another strain on the overallocated water-supply, encouraging more dairy farming in an area that could not support it.

Pete Morrison could not be reached for comment yesterday.

- © Fairfax NZ News