Mr Apple's proposal to cover 34ha of LUC Class 1 soils with concrete and asphalt.

Mr Apple has submitted a submission to the Future Development Strategy (FDS) for a plan change from Plains Production Zone to General Industrial Zone on 34ha LUC Class 1 soils on the corner of State Highway 51 and Te Ara Kahikatea.

This land Mr Apple already owns and is covered in beautiful apple producing trees.

They would like to cover our "best soils in the world" with concrete and asphalt and in doing so, destroy them forever.

Mr Apple's intention is to create an "Industrial Park" whereby they would utilise about half the area themselves for their own business and sell off the balance of the area to other industrial users.

This is a travesty and nothing but a "money making" project with absolutely no regard for the amazing soils they would be destroying for eternity.

They will have a hundred reasons why this is a great idea, including the Whakatu area set up for "wet" industry.

The reality is that processing apples does require water but that water can be recycled and be used again and again; just as Mr Apple already does and what other apple industries already do.

This destruction of our "best soils in the world" has got to STOP.

We have plenty of other options available for industry and urban development to be done on unproductive land and we all know where those other areas are.

This is simply "economic vandalism" and greed at its worst.

Not the clearest image, but you get the idea when you look at the next image.

A huge fertile area proposed to be developed into a General Industrial Zone.