Waikato feels dumped on by big-city problems

By CATHY ARONSON

Before Corrections Minister Matt Robson announced his plan for a prison in north Waikato last December, his staff gave him some briefing notes.

They were correctly expecting an outcry when locals - already fighting plans for the country's largest landfill - learned that a 650-inmate men's prison was being proposed just a few kilometres away.

In briefing papers obtained by the Herald, Mr Robson was asked: "The sites are miles away from South Auckland.

"Why don't you build them closer to the people, like your own documents say you will?"

It's a question the minister and his officials have been battling ever since, as people in the Meremere-Te Kauwhata area grumble that Aucklanders are trying to dump both their rubbish and their prisoners on Waikato.

State Highway 1 has become a billboard of opposition, dotted with signs saying "Stop the dump," and "Stop the landfill."

Hampton Downs farmer David Saxton said the dump and the prison were against the principles of the Resource Management Act - that communities should take care of their own problems.

The only reason both were in the Waikato was because they were "political hot potatoes."

"We are considered the poor cousin in the Waikato. We don't have the votes so we are considered weak opposition."

Mr Saxton said the landfill would hold 500 years worth of Waikato's waste. Auckland poured nearly a million tonnes into landfills a year, and had nearly doubled in size in the past decade.

He said the prison population was rising, and was expected to increase from 5800 last year to 6500 by 2005.

The prison was originally destined for South Auckland, which, says the Corrections Department, is home of the majority of prisoners.

After two years, the department came up with 40 potential sites for the prison and 12 shortlisted sites, more than half of them in the Waikato.

It settled on two sites, one in Hampton Downs and owned by a local farmer, the other on Tainui land near Meremere.

The process has reminded residents of the proposed landfill, which would dump 30 million cu m of solid waste in north Waikato in the next 25 years.

Two-thirds of the rubbish would come from outside the Waikato, the majority of it from Auckland.

EnviroWaste spent two years looking at 30 potential sites, shortlisted eight and came up with Hampton Downs. EnviroWaste project manager Ray Lambert said landfill space was scarce in Auckland and Waikato.

Of the seven landfills still running, five would close within five years.

But in Auckland, its competitor Waste Management has 25 years left at Redvale and 15 years left at Whitford.

So far local opposition has at least delayed both projects.

Mr Robson has delayed an announcement on a prison site because of what he describes as "not in my backyard" syndrome.

The Hampton Downs megadump is held up in the Environment Court as locals argue that it will have devastating effects on the nearby Waikato River.