Subscribe to RSSWaterview Spins Heads
Locals protest banners during the Sh20 tunnel debate last year
Waterview locals wanting to make a submission on the planned Waterview connection are overwhelmed with the paper work.
The local newspaper advertisements advertising the process go on for pages - the NZTA move involves a 40-volume application with 54 resource consents and seven new designations.
And despite all that complexity, the deadline is October 15.
Yet the Environmental Protection Authority has turned down both the requests of the Eden Albert Community Board and the Auckland City Council to extend the submission period.
A request sent by both bodies has received the thumbs down from the person who manages consent for the authority.
Auckland City Councillors Glenda Fryer says this is the first big project to go through under the new National and Act Government’s EPA process.
“That the EPA chooses to ignore the local authorities most affected by this huge multi-billion dollar project in their modest request for an small extension of time for locals to make submission shows just how out of touch they are.
“Why not allow ten additional days for submissions? Why is the Government’s new agency ignoring logical reason and the request of local elected citizens?”
Councillor Cathy Casey says, “This is not just a minor extension to a residential house by a private landowner who receives the same 20 day period. It impacts on communities, the environment and a Marine Reserve.
“This hugely complex project swathing through our residential communities need sufficient time for both council and community experts to respond. Auckland communities are being short changed by Wellington politicians and bureaucrats. The EPA has just failed its first test”
Albert Eden Board Candidate Margi Watson says “First we get the CCO for Transport, now we are denied a ten-day extension to the submission period for the biggest transport project ever built in the city.”
The government’s new one-step process overseen by the Environment Protection Authority, or EPA, requires a decision within nine months with limited appeal rights.
The other application in under the new system, the national consenting option provided in the first phase of the Government Resource Management Act reforms, is for Contact Energy’s $1 billion Tauhara II geothermal station near Taupo.
Over the next 12 months, the authority’s expecting applications concerning six other major infrastructure projects, including Transmission Gully in Wellington and the Stage 2 motorway in Christchurch.
The expected total infrastructure investment being considered by the EPA during this term of Parliament is worth more than $6 billion.
Environment minister Nick Smith says this fast tracking is a change from the time it has taken big projects in the past - the Wellington Inner City Bypass taking 15 years, the Whangamata Marina taking 12 years, the Northern Gateway taking 10 years and the Wairakei geothermal expansion taking six years.
2 Comments
Working my way through just a small part of the documentation for a targeted submission on one aspect (cycleways) and even that is pretty staggering, even though I have lots of experience doing submissions.
The excuses given for not extending the timeframe are pretty amazing - especially as there are major differences to even the material that NZTA published and discussed at length in public forums and workshops some months ago.
Small-minded, and not very respectful of the locals - I’d say just blanket oppose everything, and spend the coming month or two getting up to speed.
Agree with Karl’s comments above. If we were to get an extension, the time spent in front of the Board of Inquiry is less - so really makes no difference either way. As Karl says, just oppose everything you are not happy with and catch up on the detail later.