Failed canal property plan blamed on court ruling

Wairoa River. Photo / Supplied

Clevedon's $100 million canal project did not fail because it was too ambitious, according to one of the partners in the consortium behind the failed venture.

Chris Jones, a director of Southside Group, said the Wairoa River Canal Project was small compared with others and he blamed the Environment Court for rejecting it for its location rather than its merits.

Five groups, including the Auckland Regional Council, appealed to the court against Manukau City Council's planning change to allow the project.

In July, the court issued a decision against the project due to its effects on the environment, Maori, urban containment, the natural character of the area and the coastal environment.

But Jones said yesterday that the partners still hoped to build the project and were waiting for other planning changes proposed for Auckland.

"We have really been treated very shabbily by the system but it is so complicated few would bother to understand what went on.

"Alongside many canal developments in Australia, our project was very modest. However, a number of groups objected, including the local iwi, citing spiritual concerns, but the reality is that the opposition, while making a considerable amount of noise and mounting a campaign in the local press, numbered less than prospective purchasers for the 267 proposed canal-front sections," Jones said.

"It was pretty depressing for the partnership members who spent many millions of dollars to produce evidence from experts in a large number of fields to have that evidence dismissed as almost irrelevant in the Environment Court ruling. It is pretty depressing to have the merits of a project almost ignored and overruled by the regional policy statement that is at best vague and arguably ambiguous as a subsequent Environment Court ruling on another project outside the metropolitan urban limits has demonstrated.

"The ARC fought extremely hard against this project, producing a large number of experts to fight traffic engineering, waste water disposal and ecological issues.

"If New Zealand does not embrace ambitious projects that also satisfy sustainability and environmental concerns, then we are bound to fall further behind Australia," said Jones.

WAIROA RIVER

* Gated community planned.

* Gold Coast-style project.

* 267 large houses.

* Fronting 5km of canalways.