Auckland stops labelling potentially contaminated properties

The Auckland City Council will stop recording soil contamination information on property reports - news that about 5000 residents have been waiting to hear for nearly two months.

Potentially affected residents yesterday claimed "victory" following the council's decision to stop recording the controversial information on Land Information Memorandum (LIM), reports after receiving an opinion from the Crown Law Office.

The opinion, requested by Environment Minister Marian Hobbs, said councils were not legally required to put information about potential soil contamination on the reports just because the land had been used for horticultural purposes.

It instead offered councils the discretion to do so if they wanted, but also pointed out there were other ways to inform the pubic about potential contamination.

Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard said the council thought it had no option but to tag reports with the information.

But after receiving the long-awaited opinion yesterday, it had decided to accept the findings and stop tagging reports. It will also remove the information from the 27 LIM reports it has already tagged.

Residents, who have accused the council of "scaremongering" since news of the soil contamination broke in November, will be officially informed of the decision by way of letter in the New Year.

But most residents will already know by then because action groups were last night spreading the news.

"It's a bit of a early Christmas present for people," said Keith Sharp, spokesman for the Panmure Community Action Group, which has strongly opposed the reports.

"This is a victory, definitely for our stand on the issue and a victory for 5000 Auckland residents."

Mr Sharp said the Crown Law opinion supported what action groups had been telling the council for the past two months.

He would now like to see other councils follow Auckland's decision to remove the tags.

Soil Contamination Action Movement secretary Chris Moore said the next step after this victory was removing the stigma that had been attached to many of the potentially affected properties.

Avondale resident Charlie Smith said it was "wonderful" to hear the tags would come off, but he also wanted to see the matter resolved for good so people could get on with their lives.

"That's step one and that's good but we have still got to clean it up," he said.

The council said it would continue working with the Auckland Regional Council and Ministry for the Environment on further studies, which would include a soil testing programme.

If contamination was found during the testing, the information would then be recorded on LIM reports.

North Shore City Council, which has yet to decide if it will tag the reports, will consider the Crown Law opinion at its February strategic management committee.

Waitakere City Council, which has already tagged 3000 reports, said it would wait until the New Year before deciding whether to review its approach.

The story so far

Auckland City Council decides to tag LIM reports of properties on former horticultural land, following legal advice which says it has a responsibility to do so.

Angry residents oppose the move, saying there is no proof of contamination from the pesticides used.

Environment Minister Marian Hobbs says councils should not tag without proof and calls for Crown Law to clarify the situation.

Crown Law says councils do not have to tag reports but can do so at their own discretion.

Auckland decides to stop tagging reports, Waitakere is yet to remove tags, North Shore is still deciding.