Court fight looms over Puketutu Island compost site

Thousands more ratepayer dollars will be spent fighting to stop a composter setting up its operation on a Manukau Harbour island.

This month, Environment Court judge David Sheppard cleared the way for compost company Living Earth to set up shop on Puketutu Island, saying the recycling of 75,000 tonnes of garden waste a year overrode concerns about smells, insects and the breaching of city limits.

Auckland Regional Council, Manukau City Council, local residents, Watercare Services and winemaker Villa Maria all opposed the plan.

Now the ARC has decided to fund an appeal to the High Court against the Environment Court ruling.

"The reasons for the appeal are confidential at this stage but I can confirm an appeal will be lodged next week," said ARC environment committee chairwoman Dianne Glenn.

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 after initially being turned down by an ARC and Manukau City hearings committee.

During the court hearing, a "sniffer" panel of 14 people was taken to Living Earth's Onehunga operation to experience the smell first-hand and gave its opinion that, although "annoying", it was not "very annoying" or "unbearable".

The two councils were concerned the area designated for the plant was zoned rural and that giving the go-ahead to an industrial-type activity such as composting would further stretch Manukau's urban limits.

The ARC also said it believed that Living Earth had not tried hard enough to find an alternative site. The company must move off its Pikes Point premises by early next year.

Watercare, responsible for a new, multimillion-dollar waste treatment plant opposite the island, spent millions restoring the area after the old sewage ponds were made defunct by its new operation. It is concerned the composting activity will bring back unwelcome odours and swarms of midges, which in recent years it has fought to get rid of, and which could spoil enjoyment of a coastal walkway it is constructing along the shore.