Henare O'Keefe, Te Aranga Marae spokesman, Flaxmere ward councillor checks out the pile of rubble and rubbish dumped illegally near the Marae. Photo / Warren Buckland
Henare O'Keefe, Te Aranga Marae spokesman, Flaxmere ward councillor checks out the pile of rubble and rubbish dumped illegally near the Marae. Photo / Warren Buckland
Solid clues are emerging among 27 truckloads of concrete fill mysteriously dumped on a housing development, but the culprit is yet to be identified.
The Flaxmere community was shocked after they discovered the truckloads of concrete, bricks, soil and rubbish dumped on the grounds of Waingākau Village, a co-housing development on 15.5ha semi-rural land in Kingsley Chatham, western Flaxmere.
Kerbstones have been found in the rubble, but where they have come from is a mystery - they are not from a Hastings District Council project, and no consent has been issued for waste to be dumped on the development site.
Waingākau Village project manager Emma Horgan said the piles of rubble, a stone's throw from the Te Aranga Marae, were initially thought to be from the project's construction work but they were not.
Construction for the village, which aims to provide affordable and high quality homes to the community, began on June 14.
Pile of rubble and rubbish dumped illegally near Te Aranga Marae, Flaxmere, Hastings. Photo/ Warren Buckland
"They were very cleverly dumped behind the construction going on at the site and we didn't realise that they were not part of the site till about four days ago.
"We have gone through the rubble to figure out where it has come from, but concrete kerbs in the rubble are throwing us off. We have a few names [for the potential culprit] but we can't say anything until we are certain.
"There is soil discolouration in the piles so some of the rubble might have been dropped off a couple of weeks ago and some about three days ago.
"We are working with the council compliance team to figure out who it might be."
Horgan said the dumping was not a mistake.
"It is privately-owned land. It was intentional, not a mistake.
"A few people have got camera footage and we are trying to see if any trucks went past around the time. We know it is white tip-truck.
"We have not figured out where the kerbs have come from."
Te Aranga Marae spokesman and Flaxmere Ward councillor Henare O'Keefe said it was "obscene, disrespectful and disheartening" to see the rubble on the village grounds.
"Here we are building these magnificent homes for the community and they have stamped on the mana of what the Waingākau Village is about."
Hastings District Council environmental consents manager Murray Arnold said placement of fill on a site required a resource consent if it exceeded the quantities specified in the District Plan for that zone.
"A resource consent has not been applied for or granted in relation to the concrete waste placed on this site," Arnold said.
The penalties for dumping litter on private land without owner consent are defined in the Litter Act 1979, Sec 15 which states:
"Every person commits an offence and is liable on conviction, in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding $5000 or, in the case of a body corporate, to a fine not exceeding $20,000, who deposits any litter or, having deposited any litter, leaves it in or on a public place; or in or on private land without the consent of its occupier."
