Sign In / Register
Te Arai has been the focus of numerous controversies and legal challenges in recent times involving quarries, sand mines, golf courses, developments and dams.
The Environment Court has ruled against an appeal by O’Callaghan Holdings over the right to extract 130,000 cubic metres per year from the Lake Road quarry in Te Arai.
The court ruled against the expansion of the quarry, and also established that the quarry had been extracting up to 60,000 cubic metres per year when it had only been consented for 15,000 cubic metres.
“Curiously, the applicant was not able to tell [the court] how much rock has been moved, but given the dimensions of the hole, we think the figure would be well in excess of one million cubic metres,” the ruling says.
If the quarry had operated within its consent limitations, it would have only extracted 80,000 cubic metres over the 40-year period since it was consented.
O’Callaghan Holdings was ordered to close or reduce the volume of the quarry in order to comply with its 1981 consent.
The Court also ruled that the parties should come to an agreement on costs to be paid to the Lake Road Residents Association, which opposed the expansion.
However, the association understands that O’Callaghan Holdings is appealing the decision with the Environment Court.
TANL ordered to remove weir
Te Arai North Limited (TANL) must remove a weir it installed across Te Arai stream by the end of this week.
The New Zealand Fairy Tern Charitable Trust has long maintained the weir impeded fish passage upstream and threatened the survival of the endangered fairy tern, which depend on the fish for food.
Trust convener Heather Rogan says following a hearing in the Environment Court conducted over the phone last month, TANL must remove the weir by June 5.
Ms Rogan says she was pleased with the ruling, but says it is a shame that a small community trust was left to enforce the removal of an environmental obstruction because of the apathy of Auckland Council and the Department of Conservation.
“It will be great to see the stream back to its natural state and for the birds and whitebait to benefit from it again,” she says.
Link road appeal settled
An Environment Court hearing scheduled for June 2, regarding the route designation of the Matakana Link Road, was cancelled after Auckland Transport settled an appeal with developer Goatley Holdings.
