Te Anau sewerage panel members named

The members of a new committee to consider the proposed Te Anau sewerage scheme have been confirmed, despite questions of conflicts of interest.

At a Southland District Council meeting yesterday, councillors approved five members for the Te Anau wastewater discharge project committee.

They are Rachael Cockburn and Mark Deaker, from the Te Anau Community Board; Allan Youldon and Shirley Mouat, from the Manapouri Community Development Area subcommittee; and Don Mowat, from Te Ao Marama Inc.

Appointed at a previous meeting were Mayor Gary Tong, as chairman of the committee, and councillors Lyall Bailey and Ebel Kremer.

The first meeting will be held on June 17.

In January, three commissioners approved consents for the Southland District Council to designate land for wastewater treatment, as well as an application to discharge wastewater onto land and odour to air to replace Te Anau’s existing scheme, which results in wastewater being discharged to the Upukerora River.

The proposal was met with vehement opposition from the community and the consents have been appealed to the Environment Court.

At yesterday’s meeting, councillor Gavin McPherson questioned whether there would be a conflict of interest with any of the new members.

Youldon and Mouat are both members of the Fiordland Sewage Options group, and the Manapouri CDA subcommittee at one point wanted to appeal against consents granted for the proposed scheme.

Council chief executive Steve Ruru said he had received an assurance from Youldon he would approach the matter with an open mind and without bias.

When asked by councillor Paul Duffy whether the same assurance had been received from Mouat, the answer was no.

However, Tong reminded councillors that everyone appointed to the committee had had dealings in the consent process previously, and promised that it would be made clear at the first meeting that an open mind was needed.

Expressions of interest had been called for in order to begin a peer review of the proposed scheme.

The committee would be tasked with considering that review as well as any other options offered to the council.

The committee is expected to develop a business case to put forward to the council.