Continued pressure on GWRC by local communities, including legal action, has finally (July 2009) resulted in the Council and the developer RES abandoning plans to use Battle Hill Forest Park for windfarm access and infrastructure.

Apparently an alternate access route is being negotiated via public roads, involving land south of Battle Hill on the Paekakariki Hill Road. 

News of this decision intially came via a press release from the windfarm developer RES. In the statement by RES' project manager Chris Drayton (click on image), he implies that the decision to withdraw from BHFP was based on wide consultation with the community. Preserve Pauatahanui strongly disagrees with this claim. RES entered into a contract with GWRC to use Battle Hill Forest Park, as far back as 2007, without any consultation with the local communities.  Since then RES has stood firmly by this agreement with GWRC despite local community protests.

Following RES' announcement a press release was issued by GWRC, which is reproduced below. Preserve Pauatahanui's responded with is own press release, also shown below:

Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 4:42 pm
Press Release: Greater Wellington Regional Council

Access to Puketiro wind farm not required through Battle Hill park

Greater Wellington Regional Council today welcomed the announcement by Puketiro wind farm developer RES New Zealand that it did not require access from Paekakariki Hill Road to its proposed site through Greater Wellington’s Battle Hill Farm Forest Park.

“Although the council has made land available for the development of a wind farm in its Akatarawa Forest immediately adjacent to the Battle Hill park, it has always been our preference for the developer to find an access route that did not involve Battle Hill,” Cr Chris Laidlaw, chair of Greater Wellington’s Sustainability Committee said today.

“Today’s announcement by RES New Zealand means that the Battle Hill Farm Forest Park will remain largely unaffected by the wind farm development next door, and that is a good basis to proceed. A number of people were concerned about a possible threat to the values of the Battle Hill park by having an access road through it, even though that access would only be required during the construction phase.

“RES New Zealand has yet to apply for the consents necessary to construct its proposed wind farm at Puketiro and there will be further community consultation under the terms of the Resource Management Act. Today’s announcement by RES New Zealand should be seen as a positive step in a process, in which the region’s renewable energy interests are balanced alongside those of the people who live in the area and who enjoy the tranquillity of Battle Hill,” Chris Laidlaw said.

ENDS
  
Preserve Pauatahanui Ltd
c/o 729 Moonshine Road
RD1 Porirua

29 July 2009

Community not better off by wind farm layout and access changes

Preserve Pauatahanui Inc (PPI) are pleased with the outcome for Battle Hill Park. The things we value about the park will be retained and not given up to windfarm infrastructure. However, the community has not been "widely consulted on" regarding the layout of the windfarm. RES has changed the layout as a result of strong community pressure on both themselves and the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC). This has required community members to spend a lot of time and their own money to have their concerns heard through various submission processes, council meetings and court hearings. This is not ‘consultation’ as RES implies.  

We do not agree with Mr Drayton that the final proposal will be more "acceptable from an environmental and community perspective". RES are simply shifting the problem from one area of the community to another, trying to find the path of least resistance. While pushing the windfarm back from Battle Hill and from the private land in Moonshine, it is still very close to homes within the Moonshine Valley/ Moonshine Hill /Bulls Run area, and the proposed "Ridge C" will still have an impact on a significant number of homes.

In addition, it is pushing further back into water catchment and Akatarawa
Forest land with accompanying concerns regarding the impacts on water catchment and increasing ecological impacts on native forest - flora and fauna.                                                                     

We are also most concerned at GWRC’s recent statement in their press release on the subject, that “it has always been our preference for the developer to find an access route that did not involve Battle Hill”. GWRC was on the verge of ‘arranging’ this very access for the developer by amending the Park’s Management Plan to allow for wind farm infrastructure, without any public consultation.  It was only the intervention of members of the community that forced GWRC back into public consultation with this revised windfarm layout and protection of Battle Hill as the result.

Ends