Taylorville Resource Park: Officials Tight-lipped Due To ‘Legal Ramifications’

Saturday, 22 June 2024, 7:11 pm
Article: Brendon McMahon - Local Democracy Reporter

Officials are staying tight-lipped as investigations into a controversial West Coast landfill site continues.

West Coast Regional Council chair Peter Haddock on Friday acknowledged the keen community interest in the Taylorville Resource Park site, which has sparked concerns over its environmental record.

However, he said council cannot comment on the site "at this moment" following some recent action by council.

It was now a matter of treading carefully given "any legal ramifications," Cr Haddock said.

This week Greymouth police confirmed to Local Democracy Reporting they assisted council late last week to serve a warrant on the Taylorville site.

Senior sergeant Brent Cook of Greymouth said police helped council but the reason was "their business", and police declined to comment further.

Regional councillors, including Resource Management chair Brett Cummings and Grey constituency representative Peter Ewen, told LDR they were briefed to expect a significant announcement on the controversial site early this week.

"There was supposed to be a media statement on Monday," Cr Cummings said.

But council management continued to defer comment this week.

Spokesman for the neighbours of the site, former Grey District councillor Cliff Sandrey, said some transparency is needed given the impact on the community.

"There's something definitely afloat: we have a right to know," he said.

The council visit to the site last week coincided with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) returning to the site.

It slapped down an abatement notice in March after finding leachate from the landfill leaving the site and entering a local waterway.

The abatement period ended on June 14.

In a statement, the EPA said their return was simply to check if TRP had complied with the abatement conditions.

EPA investigations manager Jackie Adams said they were not involved in anything else at the site.

"We recently undertook a site visit to only assess compliance with the requirements of the abatement notice issued in March.

"We are not involved in any other activity at the Taylorville landfill site at this time."

Mr Adams suggested approaching the regional council about any other activities.

The authority would provide an update on their findings in relation to the abatement notice when the next steps are confirmed, he said.

TRP Ltd was approached by LDR again on Friday.

This included questions about the council's inspection under warrant, and if TRP stands by the type of material it has accepted as per its consent conditions.

© Scoop Media

Local Democracy Reporting

Content from the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service is published by Scoop as a registered New Zealand Media Outlet LDR Partner.