Laingholm Riding Club To Fight Eviction After 17 Years At Owen’s Green

Laingholm Riding Club will be evicted from the Owen’s Green Reserve by Waitakere City Council on 31 May, after serving the local community for 17 years.

The Club’s 145 members and 11 horses have nowhere else to go and have been told to leave the premises by the middle of winter when new grazing will be impossible to find.

Despite being a good tenant of long standing the Club’s lease will not be renewed. Instead a Council-appointed adjudicator has decided that a new club, the “Muddy Creek Riders”, comprising a small number of ex-members of the Laingholm Riding Club will move onto the land for the next 10 years, after only being incorporated and providing informal riding opportunities for 1 year.

In May 2006 Council staff recommended LRC be awarded the lease for 15 years, but following pressure from MCR the Waitakere Community Board backed away from making a decision and handed it over to an “independent adjudicator”. The process has cost ratepayers a considerable amount to date. The Laingholm Riding Club has grave concerns about the decision-making process and in particular about the way in which personal relationships have been used to influence the outcome.

The local community is shocked, stunned and saddened by the decision. Laingholm Riding Club President Mels Barton said “No one can believe this decision has been made. Many of our horses have been on this land all their lives and have grown up with generations of local children. The Muddy Creek Riders members are closely allied with a local private school and are based in Parau, where they currently graze on private land owned by their members. Their club has no track record and has demanded Council hand over the reserve to them. We cannot understand what our Club has done to deserve treatment like this. Every Council tenant needs to know that this has happened. Obviously no one is safe on Council land no matter how good or how long their tenancy has been, particularly if some disgruntled ex-members decide they want to take over.”

The Laingholm community will lose a fantastic resource that has been a loyal servant to local people for many years. The Laingholm Riding Club is a healthy, happy and thriving family club constantly attracting new members and offering unique services to large numbers of local children who don’t own their own horse. The senior members comprise professionally qualified equestrians, an experienced farm manager and a member currently ranked 14th in New Zealand at eventing.

“How can a small group of amateurs owning their first ponies provide a better service to the local community than we currently do?” Mels Barton wants to know. “The Council adjudicator has no relevant background with horses and apparently thinks all riding lessons are the same, whether provided by a child who’s only been riding 3 years or a qualified professional with 30 years experience. It’s a joke and an insult to the intelligence of the local community. The Council is giving in to the bullying that our Club has been subjected to for over 3 years. We are disgusted that they have let us down so badly. The split in our Club occurred over a dispute involving one novice family’s application for grazing being unsuccessful. At the time Council mediated between the groups and were content that procedures had been correctly followed. Council staff later reported that our Club had complied with all terms of the lease and were the best applicant. What has changed to make this no longer the case?”

Council staff are investigating the possibility of using land in Parau, near Armour Bay for equestrian activities. “The best outcome for the community is staring the Council in the face” Mels Barton says. “Give Muddy Creek the land adjacent to their current grazing and leave Laingholm Riding Club in Laingholm.”

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