Hawke’s Bay dairy farm water allocation decision stalls after adviser concussed

Panel member Tony Cussins was concussed by a cattle beast on his farm shortly before Christmas, delaying a decision on whether to allocate 15 million cubic metres of Tranche 2 groundwater from the Ruataniwha basin. Photo / NZME

A decision about whether to allocate 15 million cubic metres of groundwater to dairy farms for irrigation has been delayed after a panel adviser was concussed by a cattle beast.

An independent hearing panel is considering an application to Hawke’s Bay Regional Council from eight dairy farms for consent to use a proposed 15 million cubic metre Tranche 2 groundwater take from the Ruataniwha basin in the Tukituki catchment in Central Hawke’s Bay.

The applicants for the Tranche 2 groundwater take are Tuki Tuki Awa Limited, Buchanan No 2 Trust, Plantation Road Dairies Limited, Te Awahohonu Forest Trust, I & P Farming Limited, Springhill Dairies Partnership, Papawai Partnership and Purunui Trust.

The panel wrote in its final memorandum on December 14 that a decision would be issued no later than January 24, but they were forced to delay the decision’s publication for at least two weeks after panel member Tony Cussins suffered a significant concussion and was left unable to work shortly before Christmas.

“Mr Cussins was concussed by a cattle beast on his farm a few days before Christmas,” hearing panel chair Brent Cowie wrote on behalf of the hearing panel in another memorandum released on January 24.

“He has had several visits to a concussion specialist, along with a CT scan and numerous other tests, and as a result has been instructed not to work at all.”

Cowie confirmed in a further update on Monday that, after the most recent assessment, Cussins cannot return to work at all until at least February 7, when a further assessment will be undertaken.

The January 24 memorandum explains that the panel can double the timeframe for making their decision provided special circumstances apply according to Section 37A (4) of the Resource Management Act.

“We are relying on Mr Cussins’ expert inputs to complete our decision,” Cowie wrote in the January 24 memorandum.

“Once he is fit to work again, Mr Cussins’ intent is to complete his work as soon as possible. Those parts of the decision that do not rely on his contributions are largely complete, so once we have those it will take little time to finalise the decision.”

Cowie and the panel apologised for the delay and said they would advise a new completion date when Cussins was ready to work again.