Submitters back Pure Tūroa bid for ski field
Support for a private company to take over operations at Tūroa ski field seems substantial, but detractors say much of that support lacks substance and local iwi have not been properly consulted.
In December, the Waikato Times reported that Pure Tūroa Ltd (PTL) had applied to take over the concession to run Tūroa ski field and was planning to invest more than $30 million into the site, reduce the size of the operation, and limit visitor numbers.
This week, the Department of Conservation (DOC) began four days of public hearings on PTL’s concession application, which are being held in the Ruapehu District Council chambers on Thursday and Friday, and in DOC’s Tūrangi office on Monday and Tuesday next week.
DOC’s policy and regulatory services deputy director general Ruth Isaac said the organisation received 477 completed submissions on Pure Tūroa’s concession application.
Of those submissions, 316 were in support of the PTL bid and 161 were either opposed or neutral towards it.
“Hearings are the next stage of the process and an opportunity for those who indicated they wanted to talk through their submission in person,” Isaac said.
PTL’s directors are Ohakune local Greg Hickman and Taupō businessman Cameron (Cam) Robertson.
Ohakune Business Network conveners Mike Wiggins and Ben Scarf said in their submission that the vast majority of Ohakune and Ruapehu business owners supported PTL’s bid.
They said 81 Ohakune-based businesses had signed a petition to that effect.
“The directors of Pure Tūroa Ltd are local business people who operate in and understand the area,” they said.
Support for PTL also came from the 80 members of the Tūroa Alpine Ski Club which said in its submission that PTL’s plans to reduce the size of the ski field would lower its environmental impact as well as providing better facilities for young or learner skiers.
Many of those opposed to the application are members of the Ruapehu Skifields Stakeholders Association (RSSA) or referenced the RSSA submission in their own feedback.
RSSA president Rob Eller said the reduction in ski lift capacity would create choke points on the ski field and “ruins the customer experience”.
He said “the skiing community wants the skifield operations to be kept together”, and the PTL application lacked financial transparency, and was not in the interests of local iwi.
Also opposed were the Uenuku Charitable Trust - Te Korowai o Wainuiārua, whose chairman Adrian Gilbert said had not been properly consulted throughout the process and that PTL had no track record of “their ability to conduct an enterprise to validate any award of the concession to the applicant”.
Gilbert said the consultation period was too short and was also held over the Christmas holiday period when “affected iwi parties are not available for internal consultation to develop an effective and informed submission”.