People who do not want the Holcim (New Zealand) Ltd $300 million cement plant built near Weston are trying to stop OnTrack reopening the Waiareka-Weston branch railway line, OnTrack's legal counsel James Gardner-Hopkins said yesterday.
Mr Gardner-Hopkins was closing OnTrack's case to have the 4.6km branch line redesignated in the Waitaki District Council's district plan so it could be used by Holcim.
The fact the line's future was inextricably bound to the cement plan had led to 204 of the 218 submissions opposing redesignating the branch line.
"So why are we here?" Mr Gardner-Hopkins asked. Simply put - Holcim. People don't want Holcim's proposal to proceed - perhaps understandably - and they see preventing the use of rail as one means of stopping Holcim in its tracks."
The council appointed independent commissioner Allan Cubit to hear the designation request from OnTrack as a requiring authority.
Mr Cubitt will make a recommendation to OnTrack, which will make the final decision which is subject to appeal to the Environment Court.
Yesterday, Mr Cubitt adjourned the hearing after 2 days of evidence and reserved his decision.
Mr Gardner-Hopkins said several irrelevant or inconsequential issues were raised in submissions, and a considerable number of submitters misunderstood or been misled about the process or its history.
It particular, he highlighted. -The request in 1993 by OnTrack for the designation to be rolled over in the Waitaki district plan, which was not done.
It was assumed by Tranz Rail (OnTrack's predecessor) that this had been done.
There was no evidence, despite thorough research by OnTrack, that there was a request to surrender the designation.
The uplifting of tracks in 1993 was no signal the designation was being surrendered, but a decision to get some value from tracks beyond their economic life and no longer needed.
Ownership of the branch line was deliberately retained.
Mr Gardner-Hopkins rejected concerns raised by some that OnTrack did not properly consult or somehow misled the public over the future use of the track.
"OnTrack rejects allegations of wrong-doing or criticism of its conduct, or that of its predecessor Tranz Rail," he said.
A member of the Waiareka Valley Preservation Society and owner of the historic Burnside Homestead at Enfield, Bruce Albiston, opposed the designation on behalf of himself, his wife Alison and his daughter Catherine.
He said the community did not understand the full impacts, including OnTrack's wish to use the track 24 hours a day, seven days a week and not just for Holcim, but available to other users.
OnTrack had also suggested closing either the Gordon or Essex Sts level crossings.
That did not emerge until after submissions closed, a breach of the Resource Management Act and, on that ground alone, should not be granted.
Re-opening the line would lead to the industrialisation of the Waiareka Valley.
The cement plant could not proceed without rail: "This designation is the initiating and most damaging intervention that begins the domino effect of all that follows . . ."
