WIND FARM CASE BEFORE COURT
14 April 2008
By STEVE HEPBURN
THE Environment Court hearing for the Mahinerangi wind farm starts in Dunedin today, with just two parties left appealing the decision.
TrustPower's 200MW Mahinerangi wind farm was given resource consent approval by three commissioners in a decision released last September.
The commissioners heard the case on behalf of controlling authorities, the Clutha District Council and the Otago Regional Council.
The two appellants left in the case, Contact Energy and the Upland Landscape Protection Society, are appealing on different aspects of the decision.
The case will be heard by Judge Jeff Smith, and commissioners Russell Howie, Diane Menzies and Charles Manning. The hearing is scheduled to run for three weeks.
The decision was appealed by four parties but two have since dropped out.
Outram farmer Bruce Grant came to agreement with TrustPower over access issues, while Lee Stream farmers Owen and Gail Diack withdrew their appeal.
Mrs Diack declined to comment on the reasons for their withdrawal, when contacted.
Contact Energy spokeswoman Anne-Marie Shepherd said the company was fully prepared for the appeal. It was appealing on transmission issues, saying the wind farm would cause a bottleneck of power because of insufficient capacity on network lines.
TrustPower had said the Contact Energy appeal was related more to competition than transmission.
TrustPower community relations manager Graham Purches said the Upland Landscape Protection Society had not met one deadline for the exchange of evidence before the hearing.
The society has applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the decision, with papers filed last week. An Environment Court spokesman said how the judicial review would affect the Environment Court hearing would be decided by Judge Smith today.
Society co-ordinator Ewan Carr said the society would appear and be ready to give evidence today. The society had objected to the decision on many different grounds, including visual impact on the landscape.
The Ministry for the Environment has joined the court process under section 274 of the Resource Management Act, while Transpower, the national grid operator, has been called as a "friend to the court", to give evidence on national distribution issues, and its plans for the national grid.
© Copyright 2008 Allied Press Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Otago Daily Times
Go to top
Print Page
Smaller
