12/02/2025
Please support and donate to the Silverstream Rail who are going into the Environment Court to protect our environment
Silver Stream Railway is excited to announce the launch of our Silverstream Spur Conservation Fund, set up to ensure the Spur is protected from development and the ecology in enhanced through the removal of wilding pines, continued pest trapping, and enrichment planting of native tress to expand their coverage on the Spur.
The initial purpose of the fund will be to assist with the expenses that the railway are going to incur with the Environment Court appeal that will take place in 2025. This appeal was brought about after Guildford Timber Company appealed Upper Hutt City Councils decision to adopt in full all the recommendations made by the hearing commissioners in Plan Change 49, which did not allow for the special bespoke provision of a road and infrastructure corridor, instead rezoning the entire Spur as Natural Open Space with parts becoming Significant Natural Areas. Silver Stream Railway is now a Section 274 party to this appeal process which will be heard in the environment court later in 2025. GTC appear to want the plan change to revert back to its original notified form to include the road/utility corridor provisions and the removal of the SNA from the area required for the road, along with the amendment's (and only these amendments) contained in their submission and presentations to the commissioners. These notified plan provisions and the amendments proposed by GTC were ultimately rejected by both the commissioners and council when the plan change was adopted back in October. There is a real possibility that UHCC could now change their decision to adopt the commissioner’s recommendation's and not challenge GTC. It is worth remembering the so called 'agreement' between UHCC and GTC to notify PC49 Variation 1 with the road provisions referred to in the May 2024 letter from GTC (which is on our website). This type of flip flop is not unheard of in cases like this, which makes keeping the community momentum up that we have achieved over the last few years since the abandonment of the MOU, vitally important.
Our volunteers have done an amazing job over the last decade writing and presenting many submissions to various council meetings and plan change hearings, but now is the time to move this work up to the next level. To date we have pledges of just over $10,000 from some people in the community we have bounced this plan off. We are humbled and grateful for this strong initial support and have now officially launched the fund to raise as much as we can towards these high costs. Being an entirely volunteer operated charity dedicated to the preservation of historic railway items, our funding options are limited so we hope the community will further support the work we are doing to retain the Spur, as they have done so well over the last decade. . We believe that this will be the best and final chance we have to mount a decent defence for the Spur. As a shared benefit of your contribution, we will keep you updated on the case as it progresses and share all information that we can along with the work we are doing around planting and pest trapping.
You may also know someone else who might want to contribute so please feel free to send this email or a link to your neighbours or friends that might be interested.
You can access the webpage set up to collect donations at:
silverstream-spur-conservation-fund.raiselysite.com/
You have the option to make either a one off, or a regular contribution, anything you can give will be very appreciated.
If you were thinking of making a larger donation as a few of you already have, that would be better done by making a direct credit into the Silverstream Spur Conservation Fund: Account Name: Silver Stream Railway, Account Number: 02-0772-0014314-03 . Please also send us an email ( [email protected] ) so we can ensure we get a receipt to you for your tax claim.
As always if you have any questions then please feel free to get in touch.
