A prison at Ngawha in Northland would undermine efforts to revive the thermal area as a tourist attraction, the Environment Court was told last week.
In a hearing at Paihia on Friday, lawyer Grant Illingworth opened the case for those appealing the designation of land at Ngawha, near Kaikohe, as a proposed prison site.
As had happened at Paremoremo, north of Auckland, Ngawha would become synonymous with a prison, he said.
"Ngawha will lose its identity as the place of healing, the place of rest, the place of peace."
The designation was incompatible with protecting the nation's heritage, community health and safety, the interests of Maori, and the efficient use of natural resources, he said.
Ngawha's thermal pools were once a famous tourist destination. While the bathing facilities were now run down, the natural resource still had the potential to become a tourist destination.
Building a 350-bed prison just 600m from the two main spa sites would undermine attempts to redevelop the site, Mr Illingworth submitted.
The consultation process was flawed and had given the minister of corrections a "totally misleading" picture of the Ngawha community's views on the prison plan, he added.
The Crown had accorded primacy to a small group of kaumatua, led by Bishop Ben Te Haara, who were supporting the prison.
"Those outside the Ngati Rangi in-crowd have been left feeling unimportant and unrecognised ... (and) that their views do not matter to the minister nearly as much as those who have been saying what the minister wants to hear, or perhaps what the minister's officials wanted him to hear.
"Not one Crown witness could say whether the information gathered in the consultation process was accurately reported back to Mr Robson."
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
Northland prison would undermine tourism, say locals
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