An attempt to delay an Environment Court hearing of appeals against Meridian Energy Ltd building a new power scheme on the lower Waitaki River has failed.
Also, with four of five appellants who opposed the scheme now indicating they would not oppose the scheme or were likely to withdraw appeals, the original five-week hearing set down for Oamaru and Christchurch will be considerably reduced.
At a pre-hearing conference in Oamaru in April, Judge Jon Jackson decided the hearing would run for two weeks in Oamaru, starting on June 22, and then up to three weeks in Christchurch, from July 6.
Last week, the only appellant likely to be left in the process, the Lower Waitaki River Management Society, asked for an adjournment of the hearing.
That application was refused.
However, Judge Jackson altered the timetable for parties to lodge evidence, allowing the society more time to prepare its case, in which it will have to call more expert witnesses than it planned.
That was because it had been relying on the evidence of some of the appellants who were withdrawing appeals or were not now producing witnesses.
Judge Jackson added five days to the deadline for the last of the evidence to be filed.
Yesterday, society chairman Bill Penno said the society would now be calling 10 witnesses instead of the five it indicated in April.
More witnesses were needed to fill gaps left by other appellants withdrawing, and the society had been granted extra time to file that with the court.
He was confident the society would be ready to proceed with its appeal by June 22.
Judge Jackson also directed that parties other than Meridian were to report to the court by June 13 which Meridian witnesses they wanted to cross-examine.
That could further reduce the length of the hearing by cutting the number of witnesses who would appear in court to produce evidence.
Witnesses not to be cross-examined would have their evidence accepted in writing.
In April, all the parties involved indicated that as many as 70 witnesses could be called.
Meridian said it could call up to 37 witnesses.
