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Auckland aggregates firm McCallum Bros (MBL) has been ordered to pay $500,000 in costs to two sand mining opponents by the Environment Court.
Judges Jeff Smith and Aidan Warren awarded $450,000 to the Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust (MKCT), Ngāti Manuhiri’s operational arm, and $50,000 to Friends of Pakiri Beach founder Damon Clapshaw for costs they incurred during MBL’s lengthy, but unsuccessful, appeal to continue dredging sand from the seabed off Pākiri and Mangawhai last year.
The court dismissed MBL’s view that it should limit costs to 25 per cent of the total amount sought by each party, and more than doubled it to well over 50 per cent in each case, due in part to errors, delays and a last-minute application by MBL to strike out MKCT’s evidence.
The judges were particularly critical of the “ill-conceived” strike-out bid, which was made on the last day of the hearing. It came as a bolt from the blue to all concerned, at the end of what had been a complex and drawn out case between July and September last year.
“The intention to seek such an order was not pre-indicated to this court, and it came as a surprise to all parties that such an issue would be raised so late in the hearing,” the judges said. “From the court’s perspective, the application was without any merit and should not have been made.
“The entire costs surrounding the strike out application should be borne by McCallum Bros as an ill-conceived interlocutory step in the proceedings.”
The money awarded to MKCT and Clapshaw is in addition to claims for costs by other organisations and entities opposing MBL’s bid to keep dredging – Auckland Council, Friends of Pākiri Beach, DOC, Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society, Pākiri Te Whānau Community Group, Forest & Bird and the New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust – which were settled outside of court.
While the sums involved have not been revealed, Clapshaw estimates they could be as much as another $500,000, or even more.
MBL has appealed the Environment Court’s decision to refuse it consent to continue offshore dredging, which is due to be heard in the High Court in November next year.
In the meantime, the aggregate supplier continues to dredge using a temporary offshore consent that was granted during last year’s hearing, in exchange for MBL ceasing to mine inshore.
Clapshaw, whose family owns a share of a property in Pakiri that backs on to the coast, said the costs awarded to him were “okay” after what had been a long and arduous process.
“It has remained acrimonious with lots of mud-slinging,” he said. “The big concern was fast-track; I think we have done okay, it could have been a lot worse.”
MBL applied to mine sand at Pakiri/Mangawhai and further north, at Bream Bay, using the government’s fast-track consent process. However, only Bream Bay has been shortlisted in the first tranche of projects being considered in the bill.
