Coast proposals attract flood of attention
GREYMOUTH: The West Coast Regional Council has become the latest West Coast authority to be flooded with submissions from around the country, this time on a proposed Westport coalmine.
The Grey District Council is wading through more than 14,000 submissions on its proposed native logging policy, more than the population of the district.
The Department of Conservation is also still considering whether to grant consent to Westpower for the Waitaha River hydro scheme after receiving more than 3000 opposing submissions, mostly from off the West Coast.
Regional council senior consents officer Rachel Clark said yesterday the council received more than 800 submissions on the proposed Te Kuha coalmine when submissions closed at the end of last week. Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the native logging submissions the district council received were taking up a ‘‘massive amount of staff time’’, at a time when the council was also working through the draft annual plan.
All of the 14,000 submissions had to be treated individually.
With the general election around the corner, he said he believed the West Coast had been caught up in electioneering.
‘‘This is about a campaign launch for the Green Party. Go beat the Coasters up. We have to suffer, we are the sacrificial lamb,’’ Mr Kokshoorn said.
Grey District Council chief executive Paul Pretorius said 11,000 submissions were ‘‘exactly the same’’.
A summary running to 500 pages had now been prepared.
‘‘The big thing is reading through them,’’ Mr Pretorius said.
The latest deluge of submissions relates to Rangitira Developments Ltd proposed Te Kuha coalmine, 12km inland from Westport. Rangatira says the mine would employ 64 people and pump $20 million annually into the ailing Buller economy.
In the case of Te Kuha and the native logging, the Green Party has a web page where people can email in a standardised letter. The Te Kuha decision rests with the Minister of Conservation.
‘‘We want to send a clear message to the Conservation Minister. She shouldn’t be sending diggers on to conservation land looking for coal,’’ the Greens web page says.
‘‘Turning a beautiful wild space into a coalmine is a double whammy for our precious native species. Not only will it destroy their local environment, but burning the coal will help send our climate into the danger zone. Our native species are already feeling the impacts of climate change. We don’t need to burn more coal.’’
A separate Forest and Bird standard template email was used for many of the submissions received by both the regional council and Grey District Council.