Paper apologises for raising a stink

Warkworth people angry at offensive smells from a nearby printing works owned by the publisher of the local newspaper won an apology as part of an "inventive" solution to an environmental prosecution, the Auckland District Court heard yesterday.

Times Media Group, publisher of the Rodney Times, and director Anthony David Cook, were fined by Judge Frederick McElrea yesterday following an Auckland Regional Council air pollution prosecution.

As part of a solution described by the judge as inventive and involving a restorative justice process, an apology was printed in the Rodney Times for the unauthorised discharge of contaminants into the air on November 27, 2001.

Judge McElrea said the apology was meaningful to people who had for years complained about smells from the printing works but whose concerns were not publicised in the local paper and whose letters to the editor were declined.

Judge McElrea said the firm was entitled to credit for printing the half-page apology agreed to at a restorative justice meeting but he disputed a submission from the firm that the apology cost $843 because it was the publisher of the Rodney Times.

"It, in fact, cost the defendant nothing."

The court heard that Mr Cook also apologised in the restorative justice meeting between the firm, the ARC and residents.

The case involved a complaint of an "acrid, burnt, woody, inky, solvent odour" on November 27, 2001, when the firm was meant to have replaced inefficient biofilters with new afterburners, as required by the ARC. The afterburners designed to reduce odours were operating on the day.

There was evidence of odours from the works both before and after the November 2001 date, but no charges.

Judge McElrea said he regarded the offending as serious. Effects on residents were substantial and included sore throats, sinus irritation, sleep deprivation, nausea, headaches and stress. But the effects were temporary rather than permanent.

The court heard of tree plantings by the firm and a donation of about $5700 to Mahurangi College for more plantings, also as part of the restorative justice process.

The firm and Mr Cook had each pleaded guilty. Both were convicted. The firm, which had faced costs of about $17,500, was fined $5000 and Mr Cook was fined $2500. Judge McElrea directed that 90 per cent of the fines go to the ARC.

Four Warkworth residents attended the sentencing. Afterwards, Tess Williamson said residents got their money's worth from the ARC. The local council and health authorities had not acted.

Another resident, Richard Hlavac, said easterlies carried the smells. "There have been no complaints for a month - but there have been no easterlies. Time will tell."