‘Trucks and dirt’ fear

30 Apr 2026 • By Michelle Lachmann

The Cambridge Road waste recycling facility came under scrutiny

Update – We have removed the sentence published in print and previously on line which suggested there were more than 100 trucks a day associated with the quarry. The News accepts this figure is inaccurate.

Residents want more action and enforcement before Cambridge turns into “the town of trucks and dust”, a community board meeting heard last week.

“We are living with clouds of dust all around our home. My wife is coughing in bed every night before she goes to sleep. She has asthma, but this is unacceptable,” resident Andy Marsden said at a Cambridge Community Board meeting.

The Cambridge Road waste recycling facility came under scrutiny at the Cambridge Community Board meeting last week. Photo: Michelle Lachmann

Marsden was among a handful of residents who spoke at the meeting about the ResourceCo demolition waste recycling facility on Cambridge Road and Aspin Road Quarry.

Cambridge News 30 April 2026

Waipā mayor Mike Pettit and deputy mayor Jo Davies-Colley also attended the three-hour community board meeting.

Residents packed the public forum and also raised concerns about public safety and noise from increasing heavy truck movements in town.

“Cambridge will no longer be known as the town of trees and champions, but it will be the town of trucks and dust,” Cambridge resident Maree Blakey said.

She cited dust issues and traffic movements near Aspin Road Quarry.

Residents also criticised the level of enforcement by Waipā District Council.

Council growth and regulatory services manager Wayne Allan told the meeting he was concerned to hear complaints and would follow up on the issue.

Kaipaki Road resident Andy Marsden is concerned about truck traffic and excess dust from the RecourceCo demolition waste recycling facility. Photo: Michelle Lachmann

Enforcement staff had responded to residents’ complaints about the two sites, and had carried out monitoring at both sites.

“I’ve had staff sitting in cars on the side of the road counting trucks,” he said.

The district council issued an abatement and two infringement notices to the Aspin Road quarry operator in August 2025. It had also visited the ResourceCo site at 3831 Cambridge Road 13 times, as of last week, and would continue on-going monitoring, he said.

Allan told the meeting residents’ complaints about the two sites would be a priority for compliance staff. Council would continue working closely with Blakey and other residents at the Aspin Road quarry and the ResourceCo site.

The Cambridge Road waste recycling facility came under scrutiny

However, Kaipaki Road resident Tam Hankinson said she had made numerous complaints to council about the ResourceCo operation, and felt they had not been acted on.

Dust blowing from the nearby ResourceCo site to her home, inside and out, was horrific.

“I’ve made many complaints through the (council’s) online portal, but nothing has been done. The excess dust is a serious health risk. We live in a rural area, and a lot of people are on tank water. I have a vegetable garden that I regularly eat from. After wiping away the dust it’s back within an hour, and midges are attached to the dust.”

Her swimming pool could not be used because – “it looks like someone has poured sand into our pool”.

Neighbours Marsden and Hankinson were further concerned because ResourceCo was in the process of applying to Waipā District Council for consent to expand and change the site into a managed fill operation.

They feared it would be a non-notified consent, like the initial consent granted in July 2024 for ResourceCo’s current operation. Its new application has yet to be approved, nor has a decision been made about the consent notification.

After the meeting board member Gerda Venter told The News residents felt their concerns were not being heard or acted on by council staff.

“These are intelligent people and they have done their homework, but they are being ignored,” she said.

Cambridge Community Board chair Charlotte FitzPatrick asked council staff to prepare a report, responding to and updating residents about the ResourceCo site. She also asked that concerns about the Aspin Road Quarry were followed up.