You're taking our jobs - Huntly locals slam opposition to giant Sleepyhead plan
Wednesday, 2 September 2020
Huntly locals say a Waikato council boss “needs to look in the mirror” if he plans to block a billion dollar development bringing vital jobs to their town.
Waikato Regional Council chair Russ Rimmington recently told Stuff Sleepyhead’s plan for an industrial community at Ōhinewai would undermine Huntly and “bugger up” green pastures.
But Huntly community board member Red Wootton slammed that as “ridiculous”, saying it's what the neglected town needs.
Sleepyhead wants to build a new 100,000 square metre factory with 1100 affordable houses for staff in Ōhinewai, located 10 minutes north of Huntly.
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The company has previously said the project would bring 1500 jobs to the region.
Waikato Regional Council will submit against Sleepyhead at a crucial land rezoning hearing for the development, on the basis the affordable housing should be based in Huntly, not Ōhinewai.
Wootton, a Huntly local of 47 years, said the regional council’s resistance was “ridiculous”.
“Mr Rimmington’s opposition to the development on the front page of the Waikato Times made no sense to me.
“Sure there could be things done in Huntly, but these people want to come along and spend a billion dollars bringing some of their people with them, giving them the opportunity to have homes and put their people and other locals into the homes, and bring educational opportunities too.
“Why would you turn something like that down?
“I think he needs to look in the mirror.”
The Sleepyhead development would be fabulous for Huntly, a town “put on the backburner for years”.
“I think the development in itself will bring jobs and creativity that we haven’t seen in this town since the power station came in,” Wootton said.
Another Huntly community board member, Kim Bredenbeck, said the Sleepyhead development will be “transformational” for Huntly.
She believed it would lead to business opportunities for Huntly CBD and its surrounds.
'I could see where Rimmington was coming from with the local housing [in Huntly], but God it irritated me that someone from Hamilton was going to tell us what to do.
“It just p***** me off.”
But Rimmington wasn’t backing down from his comments.
“How can the development be good for jobs in Huntly when it’s going to be nine kilometres down the road?”
He said the factory and housing should be based in Huntly town itself, not in the middle of nowhere.
Development shouldn't be “ad hoc”, or “hotch potch” that’s why we have planning in decent countries, he said.
Nor should it be on flood prone land, where there's no infrastructure or public transport access, he said.
Rimmington denied that council’s upcoming submission against the Ōhinewai rezoning would jeopardise the entire plan.
“If the Turner boys really wanted to get down to Huntly and base the development there, they could.”
But when Stuff spoke to Craig Turner recently, he said building the development in Huntly was not what they wanted.
He maintained there wasn’t the room in Huntly for a 1100-strong housing community, but said space was beside the real point.
“To actually go to Huntly is not part of our plan, and we wouldn't do that, we simply won’t do it.”
Sleepyhead wanted to create a whole new industrial community, where staff could live, eat, work, play in the same area, he said.
He believed the Ōhinewai development would revitalise Huntly through educational and employment opportunities.
Independent commissioners will hear evidence at a Waikato District Council zoom hearing on September 14, though a deadline for the decision hasn't been set.