News in brief

The developer of a new, sustainability-focused ‘‘city’’ in south Auckland is seeking a judicial review over the relocation of a planned train station.

Made Group argues any relocation away from a previouslyagreed site close to the proposed Auranga town centre near Drury is both unlawful and unreasonable, and says it will boost carbon emissions contrary to council and government commitments to reduce them.

The judicial review bid is unusual in that it challenges a decision that has yet to formally emerge.

There had been initial agreement for the Drury West station to be opposite Auranga’s future town centre, but KiwiRail now favours a new site. A formal ‘Notice of Requirement’ application from KiwiRail is expected soon, as well as a resource consent application for a site 600 metres removed from the initial town centre location.

Drury West is one of three new stations proposed on the southern line between Papakura and Pukekohe, serving the biggest future greenfield growth area in Auckland on previously rural land.

Made chief executive Charles Ma opposed the relocation, saying it would render the station a car-dominated park-and-ride facility, rather than part of the urban development with easy walking and cycling access.

‘‘There are many things that make a city, but there are a few things that really frame it up and set it up for generations, and the

railway station is one of those,’’ he said. ‘‘Positioning it strategically will either encourage a more integrated community, or if positioned poorly, it will become irrelevant and perhaps a carbased community because of its irrelevance.’’

Auranga will build about 3000 homes and is modelled on Kainga Ora’s 10-year-old Hobsonville Point development in Auckland’s northwest. That development was masterplanned with parks, walkways and community amenities with higherdensity homes.

KiwiRail would not discuss the reasons behind it favouring another site.

However, in a statement it said locations had been part of an ‘‘ongoing process involving KiwiRail, Auckland Council,

Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi [NZ Transport Agency], along with input from mana whenua, other stakeholders and community feedback’’.

It said criteria included ‘‘primarily their relative potential to support growth and development in the surrounding area – connectivity, environmental constraints, rail requirements, and constructibility’’.

Auranga is the first of a series of proposed residential developments in the rural south which will add tens of thousands of homes to the area.

Ma will soon seek resource consent for the town centre at Auranga, involving multi-storey residential and commercial buildings clustered around an existing lake and adjacent to the original station location.

The original station site had been included in the Drury

Opaheke Structure Plan, which followed consultation carried out by Auckland Council.

The council is one of three respondents behind KiwiRail – along with Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi – in the judicial review bid.

The council’s legal staff, in a paper to councillors, said the bid ‘‘has not identified an actual decision of Council that is being challenged’’ and it may seek a clarification before mounting any defence.

MADE Group’s application said evidence presented by Kiwirail in August 2021 at the Plan Change 51 process for the whole area ‘‘asserted for the first time what appeared to be a concluded decision’’ for the new site.

The application for a judicial review will have its first airing before the High Court in Auckland on March 2.

STUDENT TEST POSITIVE

A student at Pakuranga College is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19. The school emailed parents and staff about the case after learning of the infection over the weekend. Pakuranga College remains open this week as no close contacts have been identified, despite the female student attending school on Wednesday and Thursday last week. There’s no confirmation whether the case is linked to the Omicron variant.

APPEAL FOR SIGHTINGS OF DANGEROUS PRISONER

Police are looking for a dangerous prisoner after he failed to return to prison from bail, allegedly crashed a car, stole a second car and led officers on a police dog chase in Northland.

Michael Tautari

(pictured), 24, failed to return to Northland

Region Corrections Facility in Ngāwhā on

Saturday afternoon, after being granted compassionate bail to attend a tangi in Kawakawa, Corrections said. He is believed to be the same man who crashed a vehicle into a fence on State Highway 1 at Oakleigh, south of Whangārei, just after 7pm on Saturday. ‘‘He was last known to be in the Raumanga area but has links to Auckland so may have travelled,’’ a police spokesperson said. Tautari is described as about 165cm tall, of medium-small build, and is considered dangerous and should not be approached. Anyone who sees him should call 111 immediately.