THE lobby groups trying to protect Quartz Hill in Makara have had a setback with the Wellington City Council’s amended District Plan saying there are no areas where wind farms are completely off limits.

While Quartz Hill has been added to the list of ridgelines and hilltops protected in the District Plan, that doesn’t rule out the possibility of a wind farm there.

Meanwhile, Meridian has hit out at the Quartz Hill Reserve Charitable Trust for what it calls misleading advertisements placed in some newspapers. The advertisements called for donations to "assist in acquiring" Quartz Hill.

"That land is not for sale and they are fully aware of that," says Meridian external relations manager Alan Seay.

"The other aspect of the advertisement that was grossly misleading was the graphic image showing wind farms totally out of proportion with the landscape. They showed 300m turbines when the biggest in world are 120m and the biggest in New Zealand are 70m.

"Meridian are happy to debate [the wind farm issue] but it’s absolutely vital the debate is based on accurate information."

Quartz Hill Reserve Charitable Trust released a statement saying that the government could tell Meridian, as an SOE, to sell Quartz Hill.

"Wellington MPs are well represented in cabinet. They are in a position to instruct Meridian."

"All friends’ [of Quartz Hill] fees and all donations given to the trust to protect and buy the land have been, and will be, used for the objectives of the trust which are set out on the trust’s website."

Last Wednesday the Wellington City Council accepted a planning commissioners’ report on changes to the District Plan relating to rural land, ridgelines and wind farms.

Chairman Euan McQueen pointed out that both sides of the wind farm debate were "likely to find things about [the report] to be both happy and disappointed about".

Many of the 1300 submissions received focused on the prospect of a wind farm at Makara’s Quartz Hill.The main purpose of the report was to set guidelines for future wind farm proposals.

Makara Guardians are happy with Quartz Hill’s added protection but are disappointed that wind farms are the only renewable energy to be given guidelines.

"There are no solar rules, only wind farms," says Jenny Jorgensen of Makara Guardians. "Wind is not the only renewable energy available to Wellington.

"Wellington had more sunshine hours than Auckland. Who wants to go to a windy place? We should be pushing the positive."

Meridian isn’t giving up on the idea of a Quartz Hill wind farm.

"We’ve said all along that this site has energy potential,’ says Seay."[The change of status to] Quartz Hill doesn’t rule it out."

"It could possibly be one of the most productive, efficient wind generation projects in the world."