Minutes from land access public meetings published

Minutes from the public meetings on walking access to land have been made public, Rural Affairs Minister Jim Sutton said today.

Mr Sutton said the written record of the stakeholder and public meetings held in September to November 2003 and a report summarising those meetings were available on the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry website.

The written record of the stakeholder and public meetings held in September to November 2003 is 111 pages long and is available on:

http://www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/rural-nz/people-and-their-issues/access/meeting-notes/

The report summary of meetings has been peer reviewed by the Reference Group members involved in the consultation and has their approval as an accurate representation of proceedings. It is 17 pages long and available on:

http://www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/rural-nz/people-and-their-issues/access/consultation-summary/

Mr Sutton said these reports were the first of several reports on the land access issue.

"I have yet to receive a report from MAF analyzing the more than 1000 written submission on the Acland report. I expect to get that later this month, and will need time to consider what steps, if any, to take next."

He said it was clear from the reaction to the Acland report that walking access was an important issue to a lot of New Zealanders.

"Many people took the time to attend the public meetings and to write to me and to the ministerial reference group, which wrote the report. There have been many suggestions and opinions expressed about the group's recommendations. These will be carefully considered by the Government."

ENDS

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