The three-person hearings panel, chaired by Rob van Voorhuysen, has decided the changes made to the company’s original application do not require a new resource consent.
Environment Canterbury and the district council called for public submissions on whether the application should be a new process due to the changes, but these were required to be authored by legal counsel.
The councils called for them after Fulton Hogan made changes to its application, which included:
•Decreasing the total active open area of the quarry from 40ha to a maximum of 26ha.
•Originally the application sought to provide for up to 1500 heavy vehicle movements per day with an average of 1050 movements per day. But Fulton Hogan now wishes to amend the proposal to a daily limit of 800 heavy vehicles.
•Fulton Hogan initially intended to develop a new dedicated heavy vehicle access from Jones Rd and use the existing access off the road as a dedicated light vehicle access to the site. Instead it wants to provide a
“shared” heavy and light vehicle access point, meaning there will only be one access point.
Upset residents wanted to have a say on the changes. But only the submitters who chose to speak at the upcoming hearing in November will get the opportunity to have a second say on Fulton Hogan’s amended application.
Quarry opponent Simon Moore was not “too worried about” the hearings panel’s decision to not require a new consent from Fulton Hogan.
“We have got the opportunity to be notified and have all the submissions which we may not get if they redo it,” he said.
His biggest concern is not giving submitters the opportunity to amend their written submissions to reflect the changes Fulton Hogan has made.
On behalf of Fulton Hogan, a lawyer has since said the company would not be opposed to submitters who did not want to initially be heard at the hearing to now be heard.
The hearing on the company’s proposal to open a 170ha quarry between Dawsons, Curraghs, Jones and Maddisons Rd will be held in November.
The only submission made on treating the resource consent as a new process was from legal counsel on behalf of Fulton Hogan.
It said: “The proposed change in sequencing and staging of the application does not change the scale or intensity of the proposed activity.”
ECan and the district council’s legal counsel had a similar view, saying the changes will “actually reduce the intensity or impact of the anticipated effects.”
