A Northland community group opposing the building of New Zealand's biggest-ever broiler chicken factory is still $23,000 short of its target to fight Tegel's resource consent.
The Dargaville group says it needs $60,000 to hire experts to represent it at the resource consent hearing next month. It's a community against a corporation and they're pulling out all the stops to fight.
Tegel wants to build 32 new poultry sheds that will house about 1.3 million chickens. The site runs for 1.8km right beside the highway heading north into Dargaville.
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Jon Walker, part of the core group opposing the build, says it is "strange that we have to pay to fight something that a big corporation's coming in to take over".
The group is still $23,000 short, so local musician Jed Town got everyone together to throw a fundraiser on Saturday.
"We thought we've got to let people know, and the best us musicians could do is to do some music and try to arrange a gig," he told Newshub.
The hearing will take place next month.
Mr Walker says if the group isn't successful, it will continue to fight it in the Environment Court. But that would be another $90,000 the group would have to raise. He says they will "cross that hurdle" if it comes.
Tegel in the past has said it's committed to working with the community throughout the consent process.
Newshub.
