Service, light and heavy industry

The Riverlea Environment Society would like activity in the Riverlea Road industrial area to be confined to light and service industry, and to exclude to heavy industry, particularly noxious and offensive industry. We would also like to preserve its industrial and residential mix.

The Proposed District Plan has the following definitions:

Industrial activity: Means any industrial activity and includes:

a) All types of processing, manufacturing, bulk storage, warehousing, service and repair activities.

b) Laboratories and research facilities.

c) Trade and industry facilities, being premises accommodating specialised education and training facilities where groups of people are given trade or industry tuition and training on a formal basis.

Service industry: Means premises occupied by activities involving light manufacturing or the repair or servicing of goods of a light nature and includes repair of household appliances, electronic equipment assembly and servicing, craft manufacture and clothes manufacture. It does not include car repairs, furniture making and the like.

Light industry: Means manufacturing, storage, service and repair activities which do not involve the use of heavy machinery, are carried out indoors and are unlikely to give rise to significant adverse effects beyond the site and are generally of a small scale. They include printing works, furniture manufacture, car repairs, light engineering, tradesmen’s depots and the like.

There is no definition for heavy industry.

Note that any plan change would not require current businesses to change in any way. An ‘existing use’ rule would prevail, with the new rules applying only to new activities in the area, or significant changes to existing ones.