My Account
A media release from Land Information today revealed that it was Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage, who is also Conservation Minister and a Green Party MP, who gave the Government go-ahead for the super dump on “sensitive” Dome Valley land.
Land Investment New Zealand (LINZ) said today the Overseas Investment Act consent was granted to Waste Management on September 11 by Ms Sage and Associate Finance Minister and Labour MP David Clark.
LINZ said the ministers approved the new landfill site “because of the investment’s substantial and identifiable benefits”.
“It is estimated that 50 to 100 jobs will be created during the two years it is expected to take to build and develop the landfill. Many of the staff at Waste Management’s Redvale landfill will be transferred to the new landfill,” LINZ said.
The decision summary said the application had been for “an overseas investment in sensitive land … a freehold interest in approximately 1,020.0694 hectares of land adjoining State Highway 1 near Wellsford, including the Springhill Farm and a part of the Mahurangi Forest”.
The price paid by Waste Management to vendors Matariki Forests and Springhill Estate Ltd was withheld under the Official Information Act, which applies “ if, and only if, the withholding of the information is necessary to … protect information where the making available of the information … would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information”.
The ownership of Waste Management NZ is split between the People’s Republic of China (just over 83 per cent) and the Hong Kong Public (just under 17 per cent).
