Council reviews decision to delegate fast-track application

A resolution to delegate to the mayor and a councillor approval of key issues reports for Santana Minerals fast-track application was reviewed at yesterday’s Central Otago District Council meeting with one councillor suggesting she would bring a sleeping bag to chambers if necessary to get the work done.

Council group manager planning and infrastructure Louise van der Voort said the council’s legal advice had been to delegate the responsibility to staff, in part due to the sheer volume of information and reports involved. It was also clear a council meeting could not be convened in the turn around time of 20 days required under the legislation.

Mayor Tamah Alley and councillor Sarah Browne were nominated at the council’s April meeting to approve the council’s comments in the key issues report for the application.

Ms van der Voort said the volume of reports and materials already received was large and the consultants’ reports had not yet been completed.

Cr Neil Gillespie, who was chosen at the April meeting to represent the council on the expert panel for the applications, said delegating authority to Mrs Alley and Cr Browne was no different from delegating authority to the chief executive.

Cr Browne said she was unfazed by the amount of reading needed.

"If timing is the catalyst I’m quite happy to bring a sleeping bag. I get it’s a big job, don’t want to give that away. That’s what we’re here for and that’s what people expect us to do. We just have to make it work."

Ms van der Voort said the only reason for recommending declining a fast-track application seemed to be if the adverse local impact outweighed the regional and national benefits.

There was a strong weighting towards economic benefits but that could be complex.

It was easy to quantify the dollar value of gold coming out of the mine but what was the economic impact if that activity had irreversible impact on an outstanding natural landscape the community might enjoy, Ms van der Voort said.

Cr Gillespie said the total of 25 days for the council to review the key issues report highlighted the shortcomings in the fast-track process.

It deliberately set out not to give the community a chance to have input and then expected the council to produce a key issues report in 20-25 days.

The council was not being given time to state its position at a governance level, he said.