Decision reserved on landfill site

Press, 5 June 1982, Page 6

Decision reserved on landfill site

The Planning Tribunal yesterday reserved its decision on. the proposed Waimairi Beach landfill site. The tribunal, chaired by Judge Skelton, will decide whether the landfill designation should be revoked. Mr A. Hearn, who represented several objectors to the proposed landfill, continued his final submissions yesterday. He said that the tribunal should not consider the proposal without "all its bits and pieces." Although the product, of the landfill would be a recreation area, the'effect that the development would have on Bower Avenue residents should be considered, he said.

The landfill designation should be revoked because the only access to the site was through residential streets, he said. ' If the tribunal decided to let the landfill proceed, conditions should be imposed to protect the residential area.

The tribunal could put controls on vehicle numbers, the hours that they could travel, and the noise levels generated, he said. If conditions could not be imposed to ease the effect on local residents, the site should not be used for the landfill, said Mr Hearn. The natural character of the coastal environment also needed to be protected. In light of earlier planning decisions. it would be "illogical and inconsistent" to say that the Waimairi Beach site did not have a natural character to be protected, he' said. In reply, Mr J. R. Milligan, counsel for the five metropolitan local authorities that favour the site, said that the legislation was intended to preserve the general character of a site, not the particular things that were there now’. The proposed landfill site was not within the coastal environment, he said. ■