Industrial project promises 395 jobs

PLAN READY: Warwick Davies of Global Olivine NZ with his son Rhys who want to build a gigantic industrial park in Portland. PHOTO/CHRISTINE ALLEN

The company behind plans for a behemoth industrial park at Portland, which claims it could create 395 jobs through a power station, manufacturing plants and recycling facilities, says it will give the project to Fiji if local authorities stall or impede resource consents.

Plans for the Global Olivine Sustainable Resource Recycling Facility (GO-SRRF) were unveiled at a business breakfast in Waipu yesterday by Kerikeri's Warwick Davies, who heads Global Olivine NZ.

The facility, he said, would take waste from the islands and New Zealand, turn it into energy and raw materials for on-site manufacturing and export the products while generating its own energy and running its own shipping network from an on-site port.

But he feared that competitors - local authorities with waste management services - could stall development.

The project was "ready to build" and included plans for 21 industrial plants on the site, he said.

It could process up to 2.5 million tonnes of waste per year, trucked from around the country and shipped from the islands.

The plant could export enough electricity for "1.5 billion homes", he said. It would have water treatment facilities.

If approved, it would be third-time lucky for Davies, who failed to get approval for two smaller projects in the 1990s.

He said he wanted to avoid a repeat of the "Meremere fiasco", a plan to convert a Waikato power station into a rubbish-burning electricity plant, scrapped in 1999 after an 18-month battle for resource consent with three councils.

Olivine also shelved plans for a plant in Gisborne after local opposition.

In 1998, it won a $31,000 refund when it took Environment Waikato to court for claims it overcharged for the consent process.

"Bill Shepherd (Northland Regional Council chairman) said I should come to Northland, even though I never wanted to apply for a resource consent again after the Meremere fiasco," Mr Davies said.

The ambitious project cited a shopping list for six 12-tonne cargo ships, 54 barges and 103 amphibious vessels to service NZ and the islands - with contracts for these builds promised to Chinese and US investors, according to Mr Davies.

Mr Davies said permits had been issued by the UK Environmental Authority for a Peterborough SRRF.

At the meeting, Whangarei District Councillor Phil Halse said political weight needed to be put behind the issue of waste management reform.

He compared the scale and opportunity of the Portland development to the construction of the refinery at Marsden Pt.

National's Whangarei MP Shane Reti told the Advocate he was interested in seeing a reference site for such a plant.

He said Whangarei was "business friendly" and if the project made sense and stimulated new thinking, it was positive.

However, he said if Portland was to become the pilot site, it would contain massive risk for ratepayers and local authorities. Dr Reti would be taking a deeper dive in to look at the environmental, economic and social impact.

Whangarei Mayor Sheryl Mai said she and a number of councillors had been approached by Mr Davies with the concept, but no formal steps had been taken at this stage. "We want to see growth here, and it is good to be able to lead the world in successful innovation," she said.

"It is also important to be fair to all applicants, and that is why we have a district plan and the provision for independent commissioners to hear planning applications."