Dunedin City Council to fight new stadium injunction

Dunedin City Council will fight an interim injunction designed to stop a new stadium being built in the city.

Council members have this afternoon emerged from a four-hour meeting with their lawyers about court action brought by protest group Stop the Stadium.

The group filed an injunction notice in the High Court on Friday in a bid to stop the council from entering into a contract to build the proposed $198 million stadium.

Mayor Peter Chin said the council had agreed to defend the proceedings and instructed the chief executive to work with the council's legal advisers and, if appropriate, to instruct Queen's Counsel to represent them, the Otago Daily Times reported.

They also confirmed their commitment to the project.

Mr Chin said a meeting this afternoon would consider whether to sign the contract with Hawkins Construction to build the stadium.

Mr Chin said the interim injunction "may not" hold up construction of the stadium.

Support for the controversial stadium to replace Carisbrook had been far from unanimous, and Stop the Stadium believed the council should consult further with ratepayers.

The stadium represented in the long-term plan draft was not substantially the same as that in the current annual plan, the group said.

- NZPA