Bid to stop helipad rejected
Briscoe’s boss’ contentious plan heads to court
Briscoe Group boss Rod Duke sat in the public gallery at the High Court yesterday, facing a legal challenge to his plan to convert a boatshed on an Auckland beach to a James Bond-style helicopter pad.
Environmentalists and residents of the Auckland suburb of Herne Bay sat in front of Duke in court.
Led by the Kawau Island Action marine protection group, the opponents want a judicial review of Auckland Council’s decision to grant resource consent for the helipad without any opportunity for public feedback.
Construction has already started on the helipad, which Duke has said will allow him to get to out-of-town golf courses more quickly.
Opponents argue that when granting non-notified resource consent, the council only took into account the views of neighbours, including Duke himself, as he owns three sections above the boatshed.
Opponents say the council didn’t consider any impact on beachgoers.
“If the public had been consulted there would have been questions asked about how people on the beach would be affected by a helicopter arriving suddenly,” Kawau Action Group lawyer Gill Chappell argued in court.
Chappell wants the council’s resource consent to be quashed.
It’s the second time Duke’s Sentinel Beach helipad plans have been questioned in a court this week. On Tuesday, Kawau Island Action chair Andy Coleman asked the Environment Court to put an immediate stop to any building work on the helipad, arguing that the consent had been granted on the understanding the helipad would be supported by the original boatshed’s wooden piles. But these have been cut down and replaced by steel posts.
The Environment Court judge refused to stop the building process, saying any arguments about breaches of the resource consent should go to a full hearing in the normal way.
Coleman is frustrated by the decision. “Does this mean that people don’t have to comply with their consents? Does this mean people can undertake activities that are not permitted? By deciding not to stop the work immediately pending a full hearing, it could take us to after Christmas, by which time the shed might be built and helicopters in use.”
The High Court case should finish today. —