Carter Holt Harvey are going ahead with a rural residential development of 121 sections at Tinopai despite a waahi tapu on the land, say iwi.

Te Uri O Hau marae representative Mikaera Miru says the company has failed to consult with iwi before starting preparations for development of Tinopai Rd and Sandy Beach Rd.

Mr Miru says the Resource Management Act 1991 principle Section 6e, for recognition of waahi tapu has not been considered.

"First base should be to come to the marae and speak with the people," he says.

Mr Miru says he invited Kaipara mayor Neil Tiller and other Kaipara District Council members to attend the unveiling of a waahi tapu pou which stands on the foreshore.

"No one from council came – that’s how serious they’re taking this," he says.

Kaipara mayor Neil Tiller said on Monday that he has no recollection of ever receiving an invitation to the pou’s unveiling.

Significant attempts to contact the company have been made by this newspaper but no one from the group was available for comment by edition time on Monday.

According to the council’s documents the company sent an application for subdivision consent on July 3, 2008 to create 121 clustered rural-residential lots, and 22 submissions were received.

A hearing was to have been held on the application of resource consent on October 3, but this meeting was postponed because "Carter Holt Harvey had more information they wanted to bring to the table," says Mr Tiller.

Another hearing was set for February 16 but this was also postponed.

The council’s development manager Mark Vincent says he believes the second postponement was to give the applicant more time.

"To deal with the issues that were raised in the report," says Mr Vincent.

Mr Vincent is referring to a report conducted by the council’s consultant planner Jeff Kemp, who provided a summary of the proposed development, the issues raised by submitters and an assessment of the proposal against the relevant statutory considerations.

He says the proposal will have significant adverse effects on the rural character and amenity and natural character of the coastal environment.

Northland Regional Council’s area officer manager Tony Dwane says the matter had been investigated and as far as compliance with the soil and water plan were concerned "no real issues have been found."

He says a resource consent is not required when conducting earthworks providing that the work meets the rules under Section 33 of the ‘regional water and soil plan for Northland."

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