Cracked but not broken: the egg farm bringing neighbours to boiling point
Insert another egg pun headline here (I dare you)
When the procession of trucks travel down a residential road, it shakes Shelley St James’ 117-year-old villa so much she likens it to a small earthquake.
She moved to the coastal Otago township of Waikouaiti five years ago, and was aware that there was a chicken farm down the road.
And not just any chicken farm: Zeagold’s Waikouaiti farms, which includes cage, colony and barn-produced eggs, is one of the largest in the country.
The company site also includes a distribution centre at its Matanaka Dr site, with dozens of trucks using the residential Beach St to access State Highway One.
“What has happened is that the chicken farm has grown exponentially,” St James, who lives on Beach St, said.
The steady convoy of trucks had left the street “bumpy and covered in lots of potholes”.
Those trucks were only allowed to travel along the road between 7am and 7pm, but St James said she could often hear them outside those hours.
“They are not playing the game basically.”
That included trucks, particularly on a Monday morning, “travelling one after the other”.
Residents would often hear a “boom boom” when the trucks went over potholes, and St James said she likened the shaking of their homes to that of a minor earthquake.
She was aware of one resident, who had previously been impacted by the Christchurch earthquake, who left the township due to post-traumatic stress disorder.
That woman, who only gave her name as Lesley, lived in the town for two years before leaving for another small town in Otago.
She told Stuff that the stress of the 2011 earthquake, combined with dealing with EQC, ended with her leaving Christchurch, and later settling in Waikouaiti, about a 35-minute drive north of Dunedin.
“I made a mistake where I bought because of the chicken trucks. I was so hyper-vigilant, and I was on edge the whole time.”
At her home, which was also on Beach St, she would hear “a rumble that would come first, and then a shake”.
The sound left her on edge, and struggling to sleep, until she moved to another town.
Documents obtained by Stuff from the Dunedin City Council showed as part of the company’s 2020 non-notified consent application it sought up to 288 truck movements per week, an increase of 38.
A report by Marshall Day Acoustics Limited, which tested noise at three Beach St properties, concluded that “vibration from the trucks will be imperceptible or, rarely, just perceptible at the dwellings noted above”.
“We have not identified any parties who may experience noise or vibration effects that are minor or more than minor who should be considered for notification.”
“They haven’t considered the local residents,” St James, who was not notified, said.
She understood the company had an agreement to pay for some of the road upkeep.
A 2006 resource consent with the Dunedin City Council shows the company had to pay $75,000 for road maintenance.
A 2021 letter from the company’s lawyer said there was no “receipting details which show that the financial contributions” referred to in that 2006 resource consent had been paid.
The company, which trades as Zeagold Nutrition, confirmed to Stuff it had been paid.
Judith Mair, Mainland Poultry agribusiness general manager, said the company was aware of occasional noise complaints received from residents of Beach St in Waikouaiti and took them seriously.
“We follow up every complaint and respond to these directly.”
The trucks were monitored and had strict rules regarding speed limits.
“Our drivers are well-briefed on their responsibilities and understand the need to minimise noise,” she said.
But for St James, who had a background in the heavy haulage industry, said many of the trucks were classified as ‘heavy’, and she believed they were too heavy for a residential road.
Her solution for the company was simple:
“Get your own road.”
A private road across farm land, to access the nearby SH1, was a possible remedy that would satisfy locals, she said.
Mair said she was aware of discussion between Beach St residents and the council about alternative roads.
A Dunedin City Council spokesperson said the most recent consent application, which sought to make changes to resource consents granted in 2001 and 2006, sought retrospective approval for truck moments which occurred on 30 March 2021 and 5 April 2021.
“Our planning staff considered the criteria that trigger public notification and concluded the overall effects were less than minor, and notification was not required, as the truck movements had already occurred and no complaints had been received.”
St James said she became so exasperated over the issue that she dropped leaflets in the letterboxes of Beach St residents, complete with the contact name and number of Waikouaiti Coast chairman Alastair Morrison, rather than her own name.
Morrison told Stuff that the issue over the road and trucks had been an issue ever since the egg farm was built, with the board continuing to work proactively between affected parties.
Fellow board member Sonya Billyard, who has lived in the town for almost 20 years, said the board had looked into the company’s consents and “they have nothing wrong”.
The trucks using Beach St were legally allowed to do so, and were operating at the legal speed, she said.
Here is an egg file photo.
It has been a busy week, bookended by tragedy. The death of man at Deborah Bay, and the death of man on Eglinton Rd, Mornington on Thursday night.
Dunedin has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. If you think your insurance for your house/contents/motor vehicle are high . . . try moving to another main centre.
In a delayed Tweet of the Week, I give it to this reply from Cr Sophie Barker.
So. Former Dunedin resident William Larnach (yes, that guy) used the Deceased Wife's Sister Marriage Act 1880 to marry is dead wife’s half sister.
Larnach's misery was compounded by the death of his wife in 1880. He married her half-sister, Mary Cockburn Alleyne, whom he had known since she was eight, on 7 January 1882, at Warrington, near Dunedin. She had kept company with him even before the death of Eliza. Mary Larnach died in 1887. You can read about Larnach here.
Or better yet. Watch this. It is very good.