Court action costs thousands
A New Plymouth man who lost a legal challenge against the redevelopment of the city’s cathedral has been ordered to pay $21,000 in legal costs.
Wayne O’Keeffe instigated a High Court judicial review last year arguing that the New Plymouth District Council’s (NPDC) decision to grant the $15 million Taranaki Cathedral Church of St Mary redevelopment project a resource consent without notifying neighbours was unlawful.
But he lost, and now Justice Jan-Marie Doogue has ruled he must pay 20 per cent over the standard court costs because he did not accept a settlement.
But neither O’Keeffe nor the Taranaki Cathedral say they know anything about a settlement offer.
Justice Doogue said Taranaki Cathedral requested the costs to be 20 to 30 per cent above scale because ‘‘a) the applicant pursued arguments that were unnecessary and lacked merit; and b) the applicant failed without reasonable justification to accept a settlement proposal.’’
The only issue O’Keeffe had put forward that she considered had ‘‘merit’’ was in the area of ‘‘big event’’ management at the cathedral complex.
The redevelopment has seen the vicarage, built in 1899, moved 20 metres closer to Vivian St where it will be renovated into a research centre with a downstairs function room.
A centre for peace and reconciliation, Te Whare Hononga, will also be built.
An April 2020 operations plan says Te Whare Hononga and the function centre will be available for hire for concerts, conferences and celebrations.
The plan estimates by 2024, events will bring in $75,000, assuming that one or other of the venues is hired out 150 days per annum at either $500, $600 or $750 per day.
Justice Doogue said in her ruling a ‘‘reasonable’’ offer of settlement in respect of ‘‘big event’’ management was made.
But O’Keeffe said the church ‘‘never made an offer to sit around the table to discuss this as far as I know’’.
Following the judicial review and a subsequent appeal, which O’Keeffe also lost, he owes the cathedral close to $40,000, he said, and they are ‘‘threatening collection’’.
‘‘I lost, I pay. That’s it. I’m not going to run away. I just want a discussion about this.
‘‘I took the council to court, not them. The council hasn’t gone for any costs. I didn’t attack (the cathedral). I didn’t attack anyone.
‘‘I used my democratic right to ask questions which I did before going to court. But the council wouldn’t talk to me.’’
O’Keeffe still believes he was right, and has a petition signed by 24 neighbours who are against the project.
He bought a house on the edge of town, in an area zoned residential, to bring up his family, and he does not want to live next to an ‘‘events centre’’, he said.
In an emailed statement Taranaki Cathedral project manager Jenny Goddard said: ‘‘The matter of costs awarded against Mr O’Keeffe is in the hands of Taranaki Anglican Trust Board’s solicitors.’’
Goddard did not answer questions around why ‘‘big event’’ management would be needed, whether they had applied for resource consent to serve alcohol, or why they had applied to the NPDC to have the area rezoned from residential to Mixed Use or Centre City Zone.