Mushroom firm fined for smell

Press, 16 July 1986, Page 6

Mushroom firm fined for smell

Prebbleton's Meadow Mushrooms, Ltd, was found guilty of causing unnecessarily offensive odours from pre-assembly compost heaps on June 6 last year, in the District Court yesterday. Judge Hay fined the company $4OO and ordered it to pay witness costs and solicitors’ fees of $396.

In his reserved decision, Judge Hay said that Meadow Mushrooms (Mr P. E. Whiteside) could have used smaller compost heaps than it did on June 6 to reduce or eliminate an offensive smell.

He said the company seemed to have an attitude that Prebbleton residents might be subjected to smells from time to time, while the company was doing all it could to disguise those smeils.

“‘That does not entitle the company to carry on the business so as to be unnecessarily offensive,”

Judge Hay said. The company was capable of changing composting techniques to minimise odours. Judge Hay said.

His reserved decision followed a two-day hearing about the activities of the company, producing mushrooms on nine hectares of land bordering Springs Road, close to Prebbleton.

The Paparua County Council (Mr I. M. Abbott), sought a prosecution against the company following a visit by the council’s chief health inspector, Mr I. B. Dawson, to Prebbleton on June 6 where he identified a strong smell typical of anaerobic decomposition.

Judge Hay said that several complaints had been lodged about the smell from Meadow Mushrooms since it began growing mushrooms at Prebbleton.