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Composting on Manukau City's Puketutu Island is a reality after a two-year battle with the Auckland Regional Council.
After three separate court hearings related to a planned composting site on the island, Living Earth will officially open the $5 million project today. Living Earth, founded by Auckland businessman Rob Fenwick, won consent to set up its operation over 12ha at the southern end of the 193ha island for a period of 10 years.
Mr Fenwick said the local residents and Manukau City Council officers who initially opposed the development were now "relaxed" about it. There had been no complaints in the year that the company had been developing the site.
The two councils' original concerns centred around the island's rural zoning, and the prospect of industrial developments ruining its appeal.
Watercare Services was worried that the composting would bring back the smells and swarms of midges which it had fought to banish, and would spoil people's enjoyment of a coastal walkway.
ARC chairman Mike Lee said a process had been followed, and the councils had lost, and that is "the end of the matter for me".
