Posted: 01 April 2008
Kaipara embankment gains consent
Independent Commissioners have granted retrospective resource consent for a 200-metre long, two-metre high earth embankment designed to allow for stock and vehicle movements during Kaipara flooding.
Applicant Northern Dairylands Ltd built the embankment in 2006 without resource consent and was told to apply for it by the Northland Regional Council, which it did in March last year.
The matter was publicly notified in late 2007, attracting 17 submissions, and heard in Dargaville last month by Independent Commissioners Rob van Voorthuysen and Fraser Campbell.
In a decision released recently, the Commissioners grant Northern Dairylands five consents for activities linked with the use of the embankment and the placement and use of an 11-metre single-span bridge across the flood plain and bed of the Waiatua Stream. The stream is a tributary of the Kaihu River.
Issues raised by submitters included the retrospective nature of the application, a lack of consultation, lack of hydraulic modelling and the adverse effects of the embankment on water levels and ponding during floods.
However, in their decision the Commissioners pointed out that many issues raised by submitters “were either beyond our jurisdiction or were not relevant to the decision that we were required to make…”
Ultimately, they considered that the potential adverse effects of the embankment, culverts and bridge could be adequately “avoided, remedied or mitigated” by the consent conditions imposed. The consents are valid until 30 June 2023.
The Committee’s decision is open to appeal for 15 working days.