Councillors say decision thwarted 'environmental vandalism'

2nd December 2004

An American billionaire's plans to have a sunset lounge excavated into an escarpment at Black Reef Point, Cape Kidnappers, would have been environmental vandalism, a Hastings district councillor has claimed.

Cr Dinah Williams revelled in yesterday's Environment Court judgement which overturned resource consent granted by the Hastings District Council's hearings committee for Julian Robertson to build the lounge alongside a 24-unit luxury lodge.

Calling the judgment a landmark decision for New Zealand, Cr Williams, who is now chairman of the hearings committee, said the sunset lounge aspect would have been "environmental vandalism".

Cr Williams, with Cr Derek Brownrigg and Cr Keriana Poulain, voted against the plan last December but was defeated by Cr Norm Speers, who was chairman of the committee at the time, plus Cr Mick Lester, Cr Tim Tinker and Cr Richard Jones, who all agreed with it. The Havelock North ward councillor said she felt like the "cat who scored the cream" after hearing the $1000-a-night development would not go ahead.

"It's a wonderful decision for Hawke's Bay. When things go your way it's absolutely ungracious to say 'I told you so'." Regarding the subterranean sunset room, which had council officers opposed before doing a u-turn, Cr Williams said: "Julian Robertson just tried to go that much too far."

Cr Speers felt yesterday's judgment was a backward step for Hawke's Bay tourism.

He was not aware of the Environment Court decision forbidding the development until Hawke's Bay Today contacted him yesterday.

"We weren't expecting anything until after Christmas," he said.

The judgment was made public by Magnus Macfarlane, counsel for Rod Heaps who appealed the decision, as well as Peter Nee Harland, who also appealed the council decision with former landowner Charles Gordon.

"We are quite disappointed that the Environment Court did not release its findings to both parties at the same time," Cr Speers said.

His comments come after Mr Robertson rejected project manager Peter Healey's claim that the golf course and lodge would annually put an estimated $10 million into the region.

"I don't want to have anything to do with that figure," Mr Robertson told Hawke's Bay Today last December. "I would hope it's much more than that."

Cr Speers also disagreed with Environment Court Judge Craig Thompson's findings, which said the council had adopted an uncompromising, partisan stance in support of Mr Robertson's position.

"Quite frankly, for them to say that when it was a split decision is an unfair evaluation of how the hearing went. It was not uncompromising and it could have gone either way at any time.

"The hearings committee is not infallible. Sometimes we get things right, sometimes we get things wrong."

Cr Tinker also said Judge Jones might have it wrong. "If he's talking about the hearing he's talking through a hole in his head, but I respect the decision he's made. I think it's a shame for Hawke's Bay."

Cr Brownrigg described Judge Thompson's finding as "a great outcome.

"When you are sitting on the hearings committee and you make your call you are always on edge to know if you have made the right decision," he said.

"It's a great feeling for me to hear that the decision I made was the right one."

But he described Judge Thompson's comments as "very unfair to council. There's a number of us who did not do that."

Council lawyer Mark von Dadelszen, who presented the council case at the Environment Court hearing, refused to comment on the decision, saying it would be unethical without the permission of the council. Crs Lester, Jones and Poulain failed to return calls today.