Northlander goes to Supreme Court to get easements back

Doug Schmuck's boatyard in Opua which is at the centre of a long-running legal battle. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A Northland boatyard owner has gone to the Supreme Court in a bid to continue carrying out part of his business from a council-administered reserve.

Doug Schmuck last month lost in the Court of Appeal which quashed the Conservation Minister's decision to okay the granting of easements over part of a reserve used by his business to work on boats in Opua.

The appeal was lodged by the Opua Coastal Preservation Society (OCPS), which has been fighting Schmuck since before the Far North District Council first granted him easements in 2006.

His business has spilled out beyond the boatyard land and on to the Wall's Bay Esplanade Reserve administered by the council.

For many years, he has tried to obtain legal rights to support use of the reserve to store, wash down, repair and maintain boats, and to discharge noise and contaminants.

In 2013, the Department of Conservation's Conservator, as the minister's delegate, granted easements that allowed the construction of a slipway, stormwater and conduit drain, and the movement of boats across that slipway to the boatyard.

The Court of Appeal quashed the minister's decision to grant consent to all the easements except two.

Schmuck is permitted to discharge contaminants and noise and also allowed construction and maintenance of concrete washdown area with associated discharge containment systems.

He has applied to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision.

His application is yet to be heard.