Win for environmentalists

Gary Taylor, of EDS, says the court case cost them a lot of money and they are considering applying for costs against the council. He says the council needs to analyse the decision of the court and come up with a lawful process.

EDS took the council to court esseentially because it wouldn’t listen to their concerns – something the court also agreed with, Taylor says.

“We met with the council but they hadn’t satisfactorily addressed the concerns about the legality of the process. So we decided with Fish and Game that the only way forward was to test that legality and that has now happened.

“Hopefully that has cleared the air on this and it should be possible to get a solution. I am sympathetic to farmers caught up in this because of the uncertainty, but it’s of the council’s making.”

Taylor says the whole country is in a period of uncertainty because fresh water policy is still evolving. He says the national policy statement is being amended and that will require all regional policy statements and plans to be amended to give effect to it. Farmers are asking “are their existing consents still legal?” According to the council, the answer is yes.

But Taylor says if the process of granting those consents wasn’t lawful it casts doubt on them.

The council may need to look at this and other issues, he says. EDS hopes to tlka to the council to work out the next steps.