Saddle Hill: still serious issues

Saddle Views Estate Ltd director Calvin Fisher at the quarry on Jaffray  Hill. Photo by Gerard O...
Saddle Views Estate Ltd director Calvin Fisher at the quarry on Jaffray Hill. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
The future of Saddle Hill looks uncertain, with bickering between the Dunedin City Council and Saddle Views Estate Ltd showing no sign of abating.

Justice Christian Whata in the High Court at Dunedin overturned an Environment Court declaration earlier this week, and ruled there was consent for quarrying in the area.

Saddle Views Estate Ltd (SVE) director and quarry owner Calvin Fisher was pleased with the decision, but on Thursday said he was angry he had to go through the appeal process.

He believed the process had been a bid by the council to close the business, and ''towards the end, it was a vindictive campaign at the ratepayers' expense''.

Council chief executive Sue Bidrose yesterday rejected the comments, labelling them ''offensive''.

She said negotiations and mediation between the council and SVE had been going on for several years, but court proceedings were initiated after the company in 2011 suggested the council buy the quarry if it wished to protect the landmark.

The suggested price was more than $15 million.

In an attempt to be fair to both the ratepayers and SVE, the council wanted to define the value of the property, and so decided to seek a legal ruling on the extent of the quarrying activity permitted on the site.

Mr Fisher rejected the proposal and insisted he had resource consent to quarry the hill completely, and that the council should buy the hill, based on this assertion.

Dr Bidrose also rejected Mr Fisher's accusation of ''disingenuous'' behaviour by council staff.

''Saddle Views Estate Ltd has consistently claimed it has a consent that would allow it to destroy the ridgeline.

''They have, however, been unable to produce evidence of such a right. Far from running a vindictive campaign, as claimed by Mr Fisher, the DCC has done everything possible to try and determine what the quarry owners' legal rights were.

''Our consistent view has been that we wanted clarity around the quarrying rights in respect to Saddle Hill.''

Dr Bidrose said in order to buy the hill, an agreed understanding of the quarrying rights needed to be established, because they affected the value of the property.

''We can't have discussions with ratepayers to purchase the hill until we know a fair price for the land, and that is determined by knowing what the property rights of the land are, and that is what we were asking the courts to determine.

''The High Court has suggested they don't have the right to quarry the hill to the ground.

''This is good news, but unfortunately for the community, the DCC and the quarry owner are no closer to knowing what the limits on the quarrying activities are.''

An interim enforcement order remains in place preventing the ridgeline of the hill from being further damaged. This will remain until lifted by the courts. Mr Fisher said there was never any plan to level the hill.

When asked if he would sit down with the council to find common ground on the proper scope of the quarrying activity, he said the ball was in the council's court.

''We've spoken informally to individuals in the council ... We've given people heads-up on certain circumstances.

''It's for them to decide what they're going to do.

''We're pretty clear where we think the [High Court] decision heads us.''

He said he and the council had some serious issues to confront.

''We've got a very valuable resource for the city, and the Resource Management Act provides for those sorts of circumstances, and we're going to do everything properly in the interests of the people who own it and the whole overall development that we've created up there.

''This is a very valuable asset for the city and we're not about to jeopardise that.''

Mr Fisher said he would be distributing information postcards to all Dunedin ratepayers in the coming days, and would use the company's website to show ''the full truth and the background to this situation''.

The information would include documentation not presented to the court, which he hoped would expose some of the ''disingenuous'' actions of the Dunedin City Council.

The website would go live next week, he said.

''The truth will come out.''

john.lewis@odt.co.nz

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