Top judges hear mall rivals’ row

Shopping mall giant Westfield says the way a rival got resource consent played down the importance of the public's role in planning decisions.

The new North Shore mall, now named Fox Outlet Centre, received resource consent without its application being publicly notified.

Westfield is before the Supreme Court in Wellington this week, arguing that the wrong test had been applied at North Shore City Council and at the Court of Appeal, when consent was given for the development.

The 50-shop Fox Outlet Centre opened on November 13.

Executive director Josephine Grierson said its reception had been positive.

In court, Westfield's lawyer, Jim Farmer, QC, said the council did not have enough information on which to base its decision about whether to publicly notify the resource consent application.

If the council thought the impact on the environment would be minor, it did not have to go through the public notification procedure.

The effect of the decision not to notify excluded other parties from decision-making.

In upholding the council's decision, Farmer said the Court of Appeal had "de-emphasised" the importance of the public's role in the planning process.

The council's own planner strongly recommended it get more information before deciding whether to notify the application.

The Court of Appeal had said the council would have needed evidence the proposed development would be ruinous to the Northcote shopping centre, to trigger the notified consent process.

Farmer said the test was too narrow and should have looked at non-economic factors, including traffic flows.

He had some support from one of the Supreme Court judges, Justice Peter Blanchard, who said he had lived in the area for 20 years and could see a change such as the library closing for lack of patronage having an effect on the character of a shopping centre.

Former Court of Appeal president Sir Ivor Richardson has replaced per Supreme Court Justice Thomas Gault for the hearing.

Justice Gault's son Ian is one of the lawyers involved.

- NZPA