Waste Management ignores postponement pleas

Waste Management NZ has refused to put its plans to develop a massive dump in the Dome Valley on hold during the Covid-19 crisis, despite the country being in lockdown and a national state of emergency.

MPs, councillors and Rodney Local Board members have been lining up this week to call for the Chinese-owned waste giant to postpone the public submission process until life returns to some semblance of normality. However, even a formal request from Auckland Council, which will decide the applications but can’t stop the process itself under current Resource Management Act legislation, has fallen on deaf ears.

Council’s general manger of resource consents, Ian Smallburn, said only central government could make changes to the resource consent process, and only Waste Management could pause or request an extension to the notification process at this time.

“On March 31, Council formally wrote to Waste Management NZ requesting they place both the resource consent application and private plan change request on hold until Alert Level 4 (and 3) were lifted,” he said. “WMNZ declined the request, confirming no changes to current timings will be made.”

That decision was widely condemned as unfair and undemocratic this week, with critics saying lockdown gave insufficient time and opportunity for people to access all the relevant application materials. It was also at a time when everyone was focused on the safety and wellbeing of their families.

National MPs Chris Penk (Helensville), Matt King (Northland) and Rodney’s Mark Mitchell have all written to Mayor Phil Goff saying the entire resource consent application could be “constrained or even tainted” without a suitable delay being approved to allow people to exercise their democratic rights.

“During a period of coronavirus lockdown, it’s appropriate for the public to have more time to make submissions,” Chris Penk said.

Rodney Local Board chair Phelan Pirrie said the application was a huge amount of information to access and absorb even under normal circumstances, let alone during a national shutdown.

“People need to be able to access expertise. You can’t expect people to digest it at the moment,” he said. “It’s really not fair at all, it’s pretty awful of them, to be honest. People need to be able to provide submissions, it’s legally important. It should really go on hold. They’re not giving people a fair chance.”

Mahurangi Matters made several attempts to question Waste Management this week, via email, text and phone, but no response was forthcoming.

Waste Management’s plans to develop a landfill in the Dome Valley were publicly notified on Thursday, March 26, the first day on the national Alert Level 4 lockdown. Now that process is underway, Auckland Council has no legal way to stop the process. However, some MPs and Council representatives are looking into whether government might consider changing this under emergency legislation.

The current deadline for submissions is May 26.

The application can be viewed on the Auckland Council website here: https://tinyurl.com/yx5d6dss