Mount Maunganui businessman Richard Peacocke is one of the key players in an application to set up nine dairy farms in the Mackenzie Basin.
Richard is a director of Williamson Holdings Ltd and Southdown Holdings Ltd, both applicants in resource consent applications before Environment Canterbury for the proposed farms.

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This proposal has proved controversial because these farms will house nearly 11,000 cows in sheds for eight months of the year. For the remaining four months the cows would be given access to pasture for 12 hours each day.
Richard told SunLive his legal advisors had advised him not to discuss the applications, lest anything said might prejudice the applications.
The Green Party says the idea is unacceptable from both an animal welfare and environmental point of view. Even Prime Minister John Key has said the government does not support the idea and has called for urgent advice regarding the position of the recently developed NAWAC dairy welfare code in relation to the applications.
There are three applications before Environment Canterbury for the same sort of operation; the third one being from Five Rivers Ltd, a company owned entirely by Cornelius Zeestraten of Amberly.
Applications are open for submissions on the Williamson Holdings application until December 15 and until December 18 for the other two.