18 Feb 2013

Trust funding staff meet Northland claimants

9:53 pm on 18 February 2013

The Crown Forestry Rental Trust is holding meetings with claimants seeking financial support to help pay for them to give their evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal.

Eight weeks of hearings are due to be held in Northland from the middle of March, but the start date is in jeopardy.

The trust decided not to offer the money after getting legal advice. It is not making the details of that advice public.

However, chair Angela Foulkes says her staff are currently busy meeting claimants who have interests in Crown forest licensed lands to ensure their claims fall within their funding guidelines.

She says the Crown Forestry Rental Trust wants the funding arranged as expeditiously as possible, but it will take time.