Kaiwera wind farm bid heading for court

Trustpower's bid to develop a multi million-dollar wind farm, at Kaiwera Downs near Mataura, appears destined for the Environment Court.

Gore district planning consultant Keith Hovell said a pre-hearing, in Dunedin on Thursday, saw the Uplands Landscape Protection Society win the right to continue with its appeal, as it was lodged, against resource consents for the wind farm.

The hearing would not be held until April 2009, at the earliest, he said.

However, TrustPower and the Gore District Council have reached an agreement on the company's appeal against three consent conditions.

Mr Hovell said he was unable to release details of the deal until it was documented.

Of particular interest would be the fate of a $760,000 development levy imposed by the council's wind farm consent hearing panel.

Former Mataura community board member and wind farm opponent windfarm Robin McGowan this week launched a scathing attack on the power company for balking at paying the levy.

Mr McGowan says, in a letter to the council, TrustPower's quibbling over the one-off payment, which was only 40 percent of the amount allowable under the Resource Management Act, was abhorrent.

The company would make huge profits from the wind farm and to appeal the levy was tantamount to holding the council and community in contempt as it "rape(s) and pillage(s)" the district's resources for the benefit of its shareholders.

Mr McGowan called on the council to stand firm — "it is time to show the nation the Gore District Council has more spine than a jellyfish", Mr McGowan said.

TrustPower community relations manager Graeme Purches said he was disappointed for Gore ratepayers that the Uplands Protection Society was persevering with its appeal as Environment Court costs would fall to the council, as the consenting authority.

Members of the society did not even live in the Gore district and it was unfair they could disenfranchise the local community, he said.

Mr Purches declined to comment on the deal struck with the council over the company's appeal.

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