The ponds were swamped by flooding in April 2016, and despite plans to move them, the ponds remain at the same site.
During a regional council meeting last week, the paperwork issue was described as “ongoing” in the action points.
“There have been no pre-application discussions with, nor an application from, Westland District Council for the Havill wall extension,” the action point update said.
Committee chairman Frank Dooley queried, “What’s the story?”
Group manager regulatory and policy Jocelyne Allen said Westland had been pressed about “when there will be an expected resource consent application”.
Allen said it was expected to be filed soon.
Regional council chief executive Darryl Lew said the district council must submit an application for emergency works soon after the extension was completed, as required under the Resource Management Act.
“They had to submit their consent within 20 working days. They haven’t done that.”
Westland would now have to apply for a retrospective consent, he said.
“That will come to council and it will go to the chief engineer who has got some reservations about the way that bank was built,” Lew said.
Allen said that could now entail public notification and a hearing, although that could not be predetermined at this stage.
Councillor Peter Haddock said he had reservations about the district council extension.
It was purely their initiative to protect the oxidation ponds, he said.
“I wouldn’t call it a Havill wall ‘extension’ because it really isn’t.”
Councillor Peter Ewen was more pointed.
“I’m disappointed that a territorial authority who is a practitioner of the RMA missed the [mandatory] 20 working days,” he said.
“Furthermore, the extension put in has not followed the advice of our engineer.
“Potentially that could null and void any future insurance claim, end of story.”
The council’s chief engineer Peter Blackwood, an experienced river engineering authority, said Westland was advised on what was required to ensure a good solution but “they went to someone independent to us”.
As a result, the regional council could not be confident if the extension would cause any future issues, Blackwood said.
His statement left a stunned silence at the table.
Westland Mayor Helen Lash told LDR her council was trying “very hard” to do the right thing given the circumstances, in conjunction with the regional council.
The extension was built as originally proposed, although the regional council had wanted it to go much further by extending the main Havill wall downstream.
But that was in the realm of broader river protection works and not the district council’s role, she said.
“We said no, we’re doing it to protect the ponds [only].”
Lash said she believed Westland had done everything in good faith, including getting the consents sorted, “but there were delays at the regional council end”.
On that basis, Lash said what had now been brought up at the regional council level seemed “a bit of point scoring”.
“If something is not done, ring higher up.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
