Rena request to be lodged

An application to leave the stern section of the wreck of the Rena on Astrolabe Reef was expected to be lodged with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council by today.

However, the application by the ship's owners would not become a public document until the council had reviewed it to see if it was complete. "Often we have to ask for more information," council senior communications adviser Linda Thompson said.

And because next week was a short week with Queens Birthday Weekend, the five-day review period meant they would probably not release the document until the second week of June.

"If it looks complete we will have a [media] briefing earlier than that."

A spokesman for the Rena's owner and insurer Hugo Shanahan said yesterday that the three volumes of application documents numbering hundreds of pages were due to be lodged later in the day.

It was still their intention to refer the application directly to the Environment Court - bypassing the regional council hearing the application. However, there was still a process to go through for this to happen.

Mr Shanahan said the delay in lodging the application had been caused by the position of the Rena's section changing on the reef after Cyclone Lusi hit in March.

Divers working for the salvage company Resolve Salvage & Fire needed to go back out to the reef to look at the scope of the work since the wreck changed its position.