Brian Rudman: Speedway compromise about to cost ratepayers plenty

Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard says he's thrilled with the truce that will permit an abbreviated season of speedway at Western Springs this summer. But ratepayers might not be so thrilled with what comes next.

The mayor has committed the city to paying for an inquiry into finding "best practicable options" for solving the noise and other environmental problems created by the speedway.

In the small print, Mr Hubbard has agreed to pay for not only an independent commissioner to conduct the inquiry, but also the independent experts hired to assist "on each item within the terms of reference".

The terms of reference are still to be finalised, but the agreement between the city, the speedway operators and local protesters specifies that the scope of the inquiry shall include "as a minimum," noise effects, mechanical/engineering performance, use of alternative track surfaces, number of events and internal noise environments of adjacent residents.

In addition, the city will pay up to $5000 to the residents association to help pay for their noise consultant, and will investigate noise attentuation measures such as double glazing and forced ventilation for neighbouring homes.

This is on top of $100,000 in legal fees the council has already paid. The commissioner is to report back by March 31 next year "or as soon as possible thereafter".

The mayor calls the truce a "huge step forward." Sidestep, would be more accurate. It's just delaying, yet again, the inevitable day when Mr Hubbard will have to admit that blatting the surrounding neighbourhood with 90 plus decibel noise for hours on end is uncivilised. It might have been acceptable back in the good old days when DDT fly traps hung in every kitchen and an oil drum incinerator graced every suburban backyard, but it no longer is.

Instead of wasting money on a commissioner and technical reports we already know the answers to, the council should accept the only practicable solution is to find a new home for speedway out of earshot of suburbia.

Thursday's compromise came just in the nick of time for the speedway operators. In June, Springs Promotions and the city council had sought a ruling from Justice Tony Randerson on whether the speedway had existing rights to exceed the 85-decibel noise restrictions the council had been trying, without success, to hold them to over the past decade.

In his decision, finally released last Friday, Justice Randerson said he had insufficient evidence to rule on existing rights in the case and referred the parties to the Environment Court for a definitive ruling. He did, however, offer guidance that if the speedway did prove to have existing use rights, these could not be extinguished by a council plan change or a negotiated agreement.

He said that under the Resource Management Act, existing use rights could only be lost if they were not exercised for 12 months or through changes in the character, intensity or scale of the effects of the said activity.

However, this does not mean that because speedway has a historic record of deafening the neighbourhood, there is no way of forcing it to quieten down. Justice Randerson pointed out the duty of occupiers under section 16 "to adopt the best practicable option to ensure that the emission of noise does not exceed a reasonable level, and the duty, under section 17 to avoid, remedy or mitigate adverse effects ... "

What confuses me, as a non-lawyer, is why the council sees the need for mediation and litigation to sort this all out. Auckland City, after all, is the ultimate owner of the stadium. Any "existing use right" surely belongs to it, not the temporary operator. Yet here we have the council supporting a campaign to claim an "existing right" loop hole to help circumvent the 85 decibel maximum written into its own district plan.

Even better, from a negotiation viewpoint, the existing three-year operating contract has come to an end and a further three years is, according to council sources, "linked to the outcome of mediation." That being so, why doesn't the city say to the promoters, agree to the 85 decibel maximum noise levels or lump it.

Better still, Auckland City should work with other councils to find a new, more appropriately located home for Auckland motorsport.