MOTHER and daughter Fiona and Zoe Neill believe their competitive edge in horse sports events will slip severely if a proposed Navua Reserve Crossing goes ahead.
Mrs Neill, who moved to Ashtons Road in Grose Wold 19 years ago, fears the bridge proposal would ruin not only the quiet rural environment at Grose Wold and Grose Vale, but destroy the region’s most popular recreational area.
“Even in winter you see many families every weekend down at the reserve picnicking,” Mrs Neill said. “We moved to this area all those years ago so that I could use that facility, and now my daughter does too.
“Without Navua Reserve we would have nowhere to take our horses in wet weather to keep them fit for eventing.”
Once at the peak of her sport during the early 80s, riding professionally, Mrs Neill fears her 15-year-old daughter’s dream of one day doing the same would be ruined.
She said without council facilities such as Navua Reserve to train their horses, they simply would not have the time or money to keep on top of their sport.
“If I needed to run the horses through water I would need to load up the horses and hire a yard somewhere else which would take a whole day, and with a full time job that is nearly impossible,” she said.
“It would mean the sport would become the ‘Sport of Kings’. We’re not multi-millionaires so we need public spaces like Navua Reserve.”
Mrs Neill said increased traffic to and from Navua Reserve, if the bridge proposal went ahead, would simply make the area a “no go zone”, as it would be too dangerous.
