July 13, 2012
New Zealand

Wind farm plan goes to mediation

The Southland Times | www.stuff.co.nz 13 July 2012

Environment Court mediation for the Flat Hill Wind Farm appeal is set for Tuesday.

A group of residents and the Runaka o Awarua Charitable Trust are appealing against the Invercargill City Council decision to give consent to the eight-turbine wind farm, to be built near Greenhills, on the grounds that it did not respect the Maori heritage and cultural importance of the area.

The consent application, heard by a commission of chairman Michael Garland and councillors Jackie Kruger and Caroline Dean in February, decided that “if provision has to be made for the relationship of local Maori with the land on the basis of waahi tapu or other concepts of tikanga Maori then it is not sufficient for someone simply to assert a belief”.

There was not enough physical or documentary evidence of the site’s use for the claim to be considered, the commissioners said.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/07/13/wind-farm-plan-goes-to-mediation/