Squabble brewing over impact of mushroom farm

The revival of the old mushroom farm operation on the outskirts of Wanganui has riled some of the near neighbours who have asked the Wanganui District Council to get something done about what they say is traffic volumes, noise and smell from the operation. Frustrated by a lack of action, the residents have now engaged a lawyer as the dispute escalates. Reporter JOHN MASLIN looks at the neighbours' issues.

 

The neighbours have had grave concerns about the operation in Belmont Rd for at least two years.Solicitor Scott Grieve

Residents on or near Belmont Rd are, for the most part, not unfamiliar with mushroom production in their neighbourhood.

They lived with it before and nothing in its operation offended them, certainly not in terms of traffic volumes and compost making essential for growing mushrooms.

But the revival of the business, by entrepreneur Leighton Minnell, has got them fired up.

It's not the mushroom farming itself that is the issue, but rather the growing stockpile of green waste being trucked on to the property and in turn being recycled into compost.

Now a number of the neighbours have engaged a New Plymouth lawyer because they are upset with some of the activities on the site. They are questioning whether this is a legal and legitimate use of the property and that it was having a major impact on their neighbourhood.

Most of the complainants live next to or within a few hundred metres of the mushroom farm.

The mushroom operation is owned by Mr Minnell while the Nga Hononga Marae Charitable Trust is looking after the green waste recycling operation.

The Chronicle attempted to contact Mr Mineell for comment but he was unable to provide any by the deadline.

Three of the neighbours have engaged solicitor Scott Grieve, of Reeves Middleton Young, and in correspondence to the Wanganui District Council he said they were concerned about activities on 21 and 21a Belmont Rd which was "significantly affecting them and the environment generally".

Mr Grieve said large trucks were operating at all times of the day, up to seven days a week and sometimes on public holidays.

"This is a large scale commercial/industrial operation which is shredding tonnes of green waste right next to our clients' properties," he said.

After going through a grinder, the material is then wind rowed into heaps about 50m long, 6m wide and 6m high.

Mr Grieve said due to the council's "nonchalant attitude to property investigating" his clients started recording vehicle movements and had photographic evidence from surveillance cameras.

One of those cameras had recorded 117 vehicles movements in and out of the property on one day and 50-60 movements were usual every day.

As well as the traffic volumes, neighbours have issues with noise from machinery grinding and mincing the green waste and smells from the rotting compost.

Mr Grieve said the scale of the composting operation now was far in excess of compost produced when the mushroom farm operated on a section between Tayforth Rd and Belmont Rd.

While council officers referred to previous consents applying to the old mushroom farm, he said it was "simply nonsense" for council to say these consents authorised the current activity on the site.

"It is our view that the current activities more than likely contravene various regional and district rules and are not expressly allowed by a resource consent," Mr Grieve said.

The residents believe a proper hearing conducted by the district council was needed and that it may even involve Horizons Regional Council as well.

In a report to a confidential council meeting of January 30, council's strategy and development manager Charlotte Almond said it was "unlikely" that consents covered the composting operation on the current scale "as this is not ancillary to the consented mushroom farm activity".

"The activity status of the green waste composting for sale is non-complying under the rural zone rules and would therefore require a resource consent," Ms Almond said.

Mr Grieve said the council was well aware of the issues "and is flagrantly disregarding them. That is a serious matter".

He said the neighbours had had grave concerns about the operation in Belmont Rd for at least two years and the council needed to "discharge its statutory functions and obligations".

If the council did nothing then he warned that alternative options for the residents included, among other things, seeking a judicial review in the High Court.

Another option would be an enforcement order through the Environment Court "however, we see no reason why they should have to do the council's job for it".

In a second letter to the Wanganui District Council (April 5), Mr Grieve said his clients understood that the original mushroom farm consent granted in 1966 cannot be found. He said this was a "real concern" because council had assumed that the current operations were within the scope of that consent.

He said all the applications, consents, decisions, reports and documents over a 30 year period related to the previous mushroom farm operation and did not include compost making from green waste on a scale now being carried out.

The council responded through its legal team (KensingtonSwan) conceding that green waste recycling and composting went "beyond the scope of the historic consents".

"As such, these activities would require further consents under the relevant rules of the district plan," the council's lawyers said.

The district council has suggested involving an independent mediator to resolve issues between the parties.

It was at that confidential council meeting (January 30), that council chief executive Kevin Ross said making compost from green waste on the site was a non-compliant activity.

The same meeting decided that if there was no agreement between the parties within three months, then council would take further enforcement action, which may include going to the Environment Court.

Mr Grieve said that timeline had long gone and "no agreement has been reached between the parties and neither will agreement be reached".

KensingtonSwan wrote to Mr Grieve (June 1) and said council had investigated noise complaints and told the land owner and operators that those activities were not to breach standards and the shredder was not to operate outside the hours of 9.30am - 2.30pm.

Mr Minnell intends to plant around the green waste drop off areas to screen it from view.

Council says, for the moment anyway, it was not going to demand any further consents in respect of traffic volumes in and out of the site and that no odour was coming from the site.

And Ms Almond said council's opinion was that mushroom growing and the cultivation of compost for that on the site were authorised by the historic consents.

"The processing of green waste, storage and composting activities, where it is ancillary to the mushroom growing, is also considered to be authorised

by the historic consents," she said.

She said there was no intention to shred any non-green waste material at 21a Belmont Rd because that was not permitted by the historic consents and would require a resource consent.

She said there was an excess of green waste on site following the last storm and council had recently investigated the operation and confirmed that all compost produced was being used for the growing of mushrooms.

"We have offered to appoint an independent mediator to facilitate negotiations and to develop a management plan to ensure the farm is operated in a way that meets the expectations of all parties. We are

awaiting the neighbours' agreement to this offer," Ms Almond said.

Council's legal advice was that mediation remained the best resolution.