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Kaipara Ltd has given up its consent to extract sand offshore from Mangawhai and Pakiri despite being six months into an application to have the consent renewed.
It alerted Auckland Council last month that it was transferring its consent and the application for renewal to McCallum Bros – another extraction company – which has also applied for a separate consent to extract closer to shore.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace Aotearoa has announced that it will put its weight behind a community campaign opposing both consent applications.
Last month, Greenpeace successfully went to the Supreme Court and overturned a consent to mine the seabed in Taranaki.
It will be supporting the newly-formed campaign Save our Sands (SOS). The campaign is comprised of Friends of Pakiri Beach, Te Whanau O Pakiri and the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society.
Spokesperson Ken Rayward says each group, including Greenpeace, will be putting their resources behind a public petition to stop the sand mining, which will be released in coming days.
Before transferring its consent to McCallum Bros, Kaipara Ltd was awaiting the results of a bathymetric survey, ordered by hearing commissioners, to investigate claims that extraction had damaged the seafloor.
The physical survey work is complete and expert witnesses will meet this month to create a joint statement based on its results to present to commissioners. Auckland Council says a date for further hearings will then be set.
Asked if Kaipara Ltd had transferred its consent in response to preliminary findings of the bathymetric survey, managing director Steve Riddell forwarded the enquiry on to McCallum Bros.
McCallum Bros chief operating officer said the transfer was done before the results of the survey were known.
