High Court quashes consents decision for Transpower plan to move Tauranga powerline

Antoon Moonen, secretary of the Tauranga Environmental Protection Society and Hinerongo Walker, chairwoman of the Maungatapu Marae Trustees. Photo / George Novak

The High Court has quashed an Environment Court decision on consents for Transpower's $7 million plan to move a major powerline in Tauranga in line with State Highway 29A.

It is a victory for a group of Maungatapu residents who, supported by Maungatapu Marae trustees of Ngāti Hē, appealed an Environment Court decision last year backing Tauranga City Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council decisions, via independent commissioners, to grant consents for the project.

National grid operator Transpower's plan to move 3.3km of the 110kV A-line — one of two supplying Mount Maunganui — was driven by slips endangering existing coastal poles and a long-held promise to iwi to move the lines installed over Māori land in the 1950s.

In a decision released on Thursday, Justice Matthew Palmer upheld the appeal, ruling the Environment Court made "material errors" in its application of the law on several points, primarily how it considered cultural effects of the proposal.

His judgement records that Ngāti Hē, "dispossessed of most of its ancestral lands", had a long-standing grievance about the location of transmission lines from the Maungatapu peninsula to Matapihi, across Rangataua Bay in Tauranga Harbour.

Maungatapu Marae overlooks Rangataua Bay and the Maungatapu Bridge, SH29A. Photo / NZME

"Transpower initiated consultation with iwi about realignment of the transmission lines, including at Rangataua Bay. Ngāti Hē supported removal of the existing lines and initially did not oppose their proposed new location," the decision said.

"But when it became clear that a large new pole, Pole 33C, would be constructed right next to the marae, Ngāti Hē concluded the proposed cure would be worse than the disease and opposed the proposal."

In spite of the opposition, the Environment Court found in favour of granting the consents. Justice Palmer said "proper application of the law" required "a different answer".

"When the considered, consistent, and genuine view of Ngāti Hē is that the proposal would have a significant and adverse impact on an area of cultural significance to
them and on Māori values of the Outstanding Natural Features and Landscapes, it is not open to the Court to decide it would not."

He criticised the decision on several other points, also finding alternatives were technically feasible.

"These are material errors. I quash the Environment Court's decision."

He sent the application back to the Environment Court and encouraged it to "further consider the issues of fact relating to the alternatives".

"With goodwill and reasonable willingness to compromise on both sides, it may be possible for an operationally feasible proposal to be identified that does not have the adverse cultural effects of the current proposal."

The proposed realignment of the 110kv A-Line across Rangataua Bay. Graphic / NZME

He said if the realignment over Rangataua Bay did not proceed, it could still go ahead on the Matapihi side.

The Bay of Plenty Times has previously reported that opponents dubbed the 13-storey-high Pole 33C - which would go next to the highway by the harbourfront marae - and its bigger twin planned for the other side of Maungatapu Bridge - "super poles".

Transpower proposed to sling the aerial line between the poles, crossing the bridge in a single span. Opponents argued it should instead attach the line to the bridge - like the B-Line - or tunnel it under the bay, but Transpower rejected these ideas as too expensive and impractical.

The opposition of Maungatapu Marae to Transpower's proposal was summed up by late kaumātua Taikato Taikato, who - as chairman of the marae trustees - said while he supported moving the lines, the proposal would "move the lines from our backs and put them back in front of our faces".

Taikato, who inherited the fight against the lines from his father, died in March last year. His dying wish was for the line to be moved but not relocated in front of the marae and the kohanga reo next door, which his mokopuna attended.

A couple of months after his death, the appeal was brought by the Tauranga Environmental Protection Society, a group of Maungatapu residents who opposed Transpower's plan and others concerned about Tauranga's environment. It was supported by the trustees of Maungatapu Marae, chaired by Hinerongo Walker.

Society chairman Peter McArthur said he hoped the High Court decision would lead to "better consultation between councils and the community and greater respect for our history and the cultural and physical wellbeing of the local Māori community which has suffered many injustices, of which nobody can be proud".

He said the society looked forward to talking to Transpower about "which of the other options identified, albeit more expensive, to 'cure the disease'" it would pursue.

He said the society had spent "well in excess" of $100,000 fighting Transpower's proposal.

Transpower and the two councils have all said they are considering the High Court decision.

Barbara Dempsey, general manager of regulatory and compliance at Tauranga City Council, said the consenting of infrastructure in and around outstanding natural areas was a "complicated Resource Management Act matter".

"The application by Transpower New Zealand Limited received robust consideration by independent hearings commissioners appointed by both councils.

"It was similarly robustly scrutinised on appeal by the Environment Court, and then on further appeal to the High Court."