MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday 9 April 2014

Contact and The Red Bridge River Park Trust are pleased to reach agreement on sale of Luggate land

Contact and trustees for The Red Bridge River Park Trust this week have agreed sale conditions for a parcel of Luggate land sought by the charitable Trust to develop a community river park involving native fauna and flora restoration and freshwater ecology. The positive resolution follows over a year of discussions between long term tenant of the land and trustee Lewis Verduyn-Cassels and Contact over the proposed sale of the 0.4 ha property.

“We’re very pleased to reach an agreement that enables both parties to move forward positively, with the Trust able to now explore its plans to develop the community river park,” says Contact’s Generation & Development Project Manager, Neil Gillespie.

“We are grateful to the many people behind the scenes who have contributed their support to this agreement. The Wanaka Community Board, and numerous donors, have all made this project possible,” said River Park Trustee, Lewis Verduyn-Cassels.”

“As the original proposal for the river park included adjacent land that was sold to other individuals, the Trustees will be looking at revising the project plan to reflect the changed ownership. We literally have decades of work ahead of us as we progressively restore and enhance the Red Bridge area.”

As part of the agreed sale process the Trust will pay a portion of the market sale price of the land up front, with further settlement due within the next five years. Separate to the sale to the Trust, Contact is in the process of finalising arrangements to gift a 1.9 ha block of land adjacent to the Luggate Bridge to the local community, most likely through the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

Contact has been progressively selling parcels of land it owns in the Clutha region in recent years, following an announcement in 2012 that it was no longer progressing a proposed Hydo generation development in the area.

ENDS

Note to Editor: A simplified map has been provided to accompany this release. The land to be sold to the Red Bridge River Park Trust is labelled block 2. Blocks 1 and 3 were earlier sold by Contact. Block 4 is in the process of being separately gifted by Contact to the local community most likely through the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

Maps: 20140521_Luggate_properties.pdf

About Contact

Contact is one of New Zealand’s largest electricity generators and retailers. We keep the lights burning, the hot water flowing and the BBQ fired up for around 562,500 customer across the country. Powering the country with electricity, natural gas and LPG, our team of around 1,075 lives, works and operates in communities throughout New Zealand. www.contact.co.nz

About Red Bridge River Park Trust

The purpose of the Red Bridge River Park Trust is to create and manage a river park and native recovery centre on riverside land at the Luggate Red Bridge, on the Clutha Mata-Au River, for the benefit of the community in perpetuity

www.redbridgeriverpark.blogspot.co.nz

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