Protesters in Te Awamutu against the waste to energy plant.
Don’t Burn Waipa Secretary Nick Cantlon wants the Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board to step in where Waipā District Council has stepped out.
Nick Cantlon
Cantlon has asked the board to nominate a person with community knowledge to serve on the board of inquiry deciding Hamilton-based Global Contracting Solutions’ resource consent applications to build and operate a waste to energy plant in Racecourse Road.
Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds acquiesced to Waikato Regional Council’s request to call in the application in August.
Don’t Burn Waipa and Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board are among organisations opposing the application.
Speaking in the public forum of the community board’s September meeting last week, Cantlon said legislation required the board of inquiry to include members with certain expertise, including someone with local community knowledge.
He said the district council had given the Environmental Protection Authority a list of commissioners it uses for Resource Management Act hearings but “as far as I can ascertain only one of these people is based in Waipā”.
“I would like the community board to use any influence they might have. Maybe the community board might be able to see their way clear to fill that role. The EPA is going to struggle. How on earth are they going to choose somebody that might know about our community and what they might or might not want?”
Community board deputy chair Kane Titchener said after the meeting the board was formulating a notice of motion opposing the building of the plant.
Protest in Te Awamutu
