'Little guys' give sawmiller the chop after 3-year fight

Plans for a $30 million sawmill at Whangapoua, on the Coromandel Peninsula, have been sunk by an Environment Court decision that opponents say is a victory for small communities.

The mill, proposed by Malaysian company Blue Mountain Lumber, was approved after hearings in April last year, but that was overturned after an appeal to the Environment Court.

The ruling has shocked the company, which has spent $1 million fighting to get the sawmill built.

"Astounding is the only way I can describe it," Blue Mountain spokesman Garth Moore said yesterday.

"My laughing is so I don't cry."

The court found that the mill - which would have processed 200,000cu m of logs a year at Te Rerenga, 8km from Whangapoua - would undermine the natural character of the valley and river catchment area, which connects with Castle Rock, the Opitonui estuary and the Whangapoua harbour.

The mill was originally approved by a hearings panel involving Environment Waikato and the Thames Coromandel District Council, but the Whangapoua Environmental Protection Society challenged the decision, saying the mill would damage waterways and the local environment.

Society spokesman Paul Bibby said the decision was a victory for the little guy.

The group has fought against the mill for three years, raising money and employing its own experts for the appeal.

Mr Bibby said the society had taken on two councils (Environment Waikato and Thames Coromandel) and "big business" in the form of Blue Mountain Lumber .

"It just shows that small communities can do it," he said.

"We're wonderfully happy with the result.

"The biggest winner of the lot is the environment."

Mr Bibby said the landscape, including Castle Rock and Whangapoua harbour, was among the most beautiful on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Now the protection society has joined the Department of Conservation in appealing against a decision to allow Blue Mountain Lumber's forestry arm, Ernslaw One, to harvest thousands of hectares of pine on the Coromandel Peninsula.