Ngati Tahu landowner spokesman Peter Staite outside the Maori Land Court yesterday. Photo / Stephen Parker
Ngati Tahu landowner spokesman Peter Staite outside the Maori Land Court yesterday. Photo / Stephen Parker
A last-minute application to stop the building of a flood protection bund at Ohaaki Marae on the banks of the Waikato River has been declined.
Work on the $3 million embankment, being paid for by Contact Energy as part of the conditions of its resource consent to operate the Ohaakigeothermal power station, was to begin today.
However, a group of Ngati Tahu landowners tried to stop the work from going ahead, saying they were not properly consulted, the bund was not required, landowners had voted not to build it and it would spoil views to the river from the marae.
The marae, about 40km north of Taupo, has been slowly sinking because of steam extraction at the nearby power station.
Some landowners argued that they had only found out the bund was to be built in April after voting against it mid-2015.
They said they would prefer to deal with any flooding if and when it occurred.
But elected members of the iwi trust said there had been plenty of consultation and they were legally entitled to make the decision to build the bund and protect the marae from flooding.
Judge Craig Coxhead presided over a special sitting of the Maori Land Court in Rotorua yesterday to hear an application for an injunction on behalf of the landowners to stop the building of the more than 50m-long bund.
Over the years the marae has dealt with issues of land subsidence with the power station found to be adding to the problem. One option, to move the entire marae away from the river bank, was dropped with Contact Energy agreeing to cover insurance for the marae and build the flood protection bund under a mitigation package in 2013.
A $3 million flood protection bund is to be built and paid for by Contact Energy to protect Ohaaki Marae from flooding.
Trustees agreed to the mitigation package, including the bund build, saying it was making the best of a bad situation.
Trust spokespeople said they were doing it to protect and enhance the marae and the surrounding land for future generations.
Judge Coxhead said the court would not intervene in the dispute, saying the trustees were acting with authority from the iwi and within the law.
"This court is always reluctant to intervene into decisions of trustees, especially when the trustees are acting within the terms of their trust ... and it reasonably appears, as it does to me, that the trustees are acting for the beneficial owners as a whole, as is the case here. The application is dismissed."
It is not known when the building of the bund will begin.
