The doubling of resource consent application costs led to the suspension of Global Contracting Solutions resource consent application to build a waste to energy plant in Te Awamutu, the applicant says.
Protestors at Don’t Burn Waipa
Paeriwa waste-to-energy plant project director Adam Fletcher told The News application costs had risen one month before an independent board of inquiry began into the application in June.
Adam Fletcher.
“We are a bit bemused as to why they chose to do this now,” Fletcher said after Environment Protection Authority chief executive Allen Freeth emailed submitters with news of the suspension last week.
“We are only two weeks away from the decision. It seems a bit non sensical.”
The board of inquiry, chaired by Environment Court Judge Bryan Dwyer, sat for three weeks in Hamilton in June and July.
Neither Fletcher or the EPA would reveal the costs and Fletcher also declined to discuss a further $40,665 outstanding resource consent processing costs owed to Waipā District Council since April 2024.
Penny Simmonds
The application for the plant initially went to the council, before being called in to an independent board of inquiry by minister for the environment Penny Simmonds.
Freeth, the email said, the suspension would pause all statutory processing timeframes, including the decision due date – August 28.
“If processing is resumed, we will provide an updated date.”
Waipā District Council and Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board were among more than 2000 submitters on the plan, the vast majority in opposition.
The EPA’s decision to suspend the application came as a shock to board deputy chair Kane Titchener and Don’t Burn Waipā spokesman Nick Cantlon.
Kane Titchener
“It is entirely reasonable that the applicants are required to pay first before receiving the ruling,” Titchener said.
“The issue is that there is a considerable amount of anxiety in the Te Awamutu and Kihikihi District because we were close to having certainty about the application. People’s lives, and in some cases businesses, have been put on hold. This delay is just another hold up.”
“We had been anticipating a decision from the board of inquiry within the next two weeks and to now be thrown into a state of limbo has been very disconcerting,” Cantlon said.
“This process has been underway for nearly four years, and the final decision was only two weeks away, having the process stopped like this is very unsettling to the local community who would like certainty by way of a decision.”
Don’t burn Waipa
