Soil details stay on Lim report

The Auckland City Council is still recording information about soil contamination from old horticultural sites on property Lim reports.

The Herald reported last month that the council had passed a resolution to stop recording the information on the reports of nearly 5000 properties until a legal opinion, due in a few weeks, was received.

But because of a confusing - although some residents say carefully worded - clause in the resolution the council is still adding the controversial information to the Lim (land information memorandum) reports of potentially affected properties.

City planning group manager John Duthie said the electronic recording of information on to all of the reports had stopped but information was still being added when a person requested a report.

"If somebody asks for a Lim on a particular property today they will still get the full information," he said.

Councillor Vern Walsh said that was not the intention of the notice of motion passed at a council meeting on November 25.

That resolution was meant to stop the recording of soil contamination information unless a person specially requested it when buying the Lim report.

But council staff have interpreted "specifically requested" to mean whenever a report is requested, rather than when soil information is requested.

Councillor Richard Northey, who drafted the resolution and a previous notice of motion that was changed at the last minute, was not available for comment yesterday.

Panmure Community Action Group spokesman Keith Sharp said it appeared Mr Northey had been stonewalled by council officers, lawyers and senior councillors before the meeting.

As a result he changed his notice of motion, which would have stopped all Lim report tagging, to the one that was passed.

Mr Sharp said the final resolution was meaningless because information was still being recorded on Lim reports.

"They are hiding behind legal niceties while the whole burden of this mess is still falling on thousands of innocent home-owners who have no way of knowing whether they have a problem or not."

Mr Sharp said the issue needed to be resolved once and for all.

"The council must repair the damage it has done by publicly admitting that it has no clear evidence of soil contamination on any of the properties it has identified."

Avondale property-owner Charlie Smith said the council had "stuffed up in a big way" over the issue.

He said the only way to resolve the problem would be to remove the tags from all the reports or tag every report in the country, because most properties would have been horticultural sites at some stage.

* The North Shore City Council has decided to wait for the Crown Law Office advice before deciding whether it will tag the reports of 2000 potentially affected sites.

Lim confusion

Councillors Walsh and Northey draft a notice of motion to "stop Lim tagging until legal advice is available".

At the last minute they change it to "stop Lim tagging unless the person specifically wants information about soil contamination".

Council staff interpret "specifically requested" to mean information should be given out with all Lim reports.

Exact wording of the resolution: "That the council not place information on Lim reports regarding former horticultural land (except where investigation has shown the actual risk to human health or the environment) except where a Lim report on a particular site is specifically requested, until the Crown Law Office opinion is received."