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Action Ninja World Matakana was forced to close this month after barely a year in operation, following a High Court decision to quash its resource consent.
The 3850 square metre adventure playground opened at Matakana Country Park in January and features a trapeze, Tarzan swings, bungee run, high wire, inflatable water slide, zorb soccer pitch and a ninja warrior course.
But a neighbouring landowner, Innova Tan Ltd (ITL), which owns a property on 1 Takatu Road, sought a judicial review of Auckland Council’s decision to issue a resource consent. It was filed on the basis that ITL was not provided information about the impact of the adventure playground, including the noise it would generate and the size and scale of its structures.
In his written judgment on the case, Justice Mark Woolford said in November 2020 Matakana Country Park (MCPL) director Brendan Coghlan met with 85-year-old William Freeth – the sole director of ITL.
At the meeting, Mr Freeth was provided with a site plan which identified the general location of the adventure playground “without showing the extent of the 3850 square metre area and its proximity to the boundary of 1 Takatu Road”.
Mr Freeth then signed a “written approval of affected persons” form, which MCPL scanned and sent to Auckland Council to further its resource consent application.
Council subsequently decided to grant MCPL’s resource consent application without public notification.
Justice Woolford said that ITL’s principal argument was that Council was wrong to accept ITL’s written approval at face value as the plans attached to the written approval were not the plans submitted to Council.
The plans submitted to Council were for an “Action Ninja World” and a “Matakana Action World”, whereas the plans shown to Mr Freeth and signed by him were for an “Adventure Playground” and a “Matakana Country Park Children’s Adventure Playground”.
Justice Woolford said that Mr Coghlan had an Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE) report, which included a description of the size of each structure and their primary colours but he did not show any of these to Mr Freeth.
“If he had been shown the AEE, Mr Freeth would have realised that the proposed activity was more than the children’s playground described in one of the plans he was shown and which he signed,” Justice Woolford said.
Justice Woolford said given the adventure playground’s impact on 1 Takatu Road, Mr Freeth needed to have seen something more than a two-dimensional plan, without any scale, for Council to be satisfied of his consent to the resource consent application.
“In the circumstances, I am of the view that Council failed to properly consider whether or not Mr Freeth had consented to the application as lodged. That is an error of law,” Justice Woolford wrote.
Accordingly, Justice Woolford quashed the resource consent.
A message on the adventure playground’s website last week said due to unforeseen circumstances Action Ninja World would be closed until further notice.
“We are working hard behind the scenes with the Auckland Council to make this experience available as soon as we can, however, there’s no confirmed date at this stage. We will advise you when we have a confirmed re-opening date,” the message said.
Mr Coghlan told Mahurangi Matters that Action Ninja World was closed temporarily while a new Resource Consent was processed by Council.
A Council spokesperson said any reconsideration of the previous resource consent or new application would be considered on its merits. It could not determine at this stage whether such an application would need to be publicly notified.
