Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Farmers take court action to stop swamp scheme

Updated at 4:46 pm on 8 December 2012

Farmers at Hikurangi near Whangarei are taking High Court action over a swamp drainage scheme they say is a disaster.

The farmers say they were not given the chance to make submissions on changes to a resource consent application that has led to increased flooding on their land.

The Whangarei District Council spent more than half a million dollars securing the consent for its Hikurangi Swamp Flood Control Scheme in 2010.

But the farmers say the council made the changes behind closed doors and the regional council granted the consent without notifiying all the affected farmers.

Four farmers led by Ben Smith and Neville Thorne and supported by about 20 more from the Hikurangi area have applied to have the consent quashed,

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