Wayne Allan
Waipā District Council has a legal obligation to consider a proposal to build a waste to energy plant in Waipā, its council’s district growth and regulatory services group manager Wayne Allan says.
He was speaking after Waipā District Council received close to 900 responses on the proposal to build a waste incineration plant in Te Awamutu.
It was the highest number of submissions the council had ever received on a resource consent application and the council expects to make them all publicly available by the end of the week.
Submissions closed on Friday and of those processed “so far”, the vast majority opposed the plant, a council statement released on Monday said.
Council could not just say yes or no to the proposal, Allan said. It wasn’t that simple under the Resource Management Act.
Global Contracting Solutions wants generate electricity on Racecourse Road, Te Awamutu, by burning 150,000 tonnes of rubbish annually. Rubbish would be trucked in from outside the district.
Allan said the level of public interest vindicated the council’s decision to make the application a publicly notified consent process.”
Waipā District Council is working with Waikato Regional Council to appoint joint independent hearing commissioners to assess the proposal and consider public submissions.
