Field days site may host other activities

Justine Williams.
Justine Williams.
The Southern Field Days site could be used for a wider variety of events if a land use consent application lodged with the Gore District Council gains favour.

The council received an application from Eastern Southland Young Farmers Club Southern Field Days Inc to establish an event venue to host a range of commercial, recreational, communal, showground and visitor accommodation activities.

The site is home to the Southern Agricultural Field Days event, which is held every second year - a permitted activity under the Gore District Plan.

In the application document it stated in recent years the site had been gradually developed with the construction of the Agricentre building, the addition of a site office and other associated infrastructure. With this infrastructure development, other opportunities relating to additional temporary uses of the site have arisen.

These opportunities give rise to activities that do not strictly conform to the definition of agricultural field days.

The indoor dog trials and machinery demonstration days were also held at the site.

Publicity officer Justine Williams said a new consent would allow the hosting of not just agricultural-based events but also others of a variety of natures.

Two Super 15 rugby games were hosted at the Southern Field Days in Waimumu, during the last two field days events.

The organisation had got behind the formation of Fred Booth Park opposite the main field days site where the rugby games were played.

The organisation was urging the public to get behind the initiative and register support, Mrs Williams said.

''We would love support from the community to bring events,'' she said.

The organisation would like to see more events being hosted in the district.

The opening up of the site, which has both indoor and outdoor venues, would strengthen Gore's position when it came to hosting events.

The application is open for public submission and will close at 4pm on Friday December 14.

Gore District Mayor Tracy Hicks said the idea of expanding the type of events and use of the field days site was a project organisers had been working on for some time.

Mr Hicks said organisers were looking at options to host events at the site.

''I think it's important for them to have as many events as they can to utilise that property,'' he said.

''The field days have certainly proved their worth,'' he said.

Mr Hicks believed the option to host a wider variety of events fitted in well with the growth strategy the council had embarked upon.

The Regional Development Strategy aimed at growth in Southland. The strategies aim to add 1000 people to the Gore population by 2025 and 10,000 region-wide.

 

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