The High Court has put the kibosh on companies purchasing water consents granted for one purpose and putting them to a completely different use.
This harks back to the Supreme Court ruling on Cloud Ocean which prevented offshore companies turning water permits for wool scouring into huge water bottling operations.
In this case a tiny community group (Seesaw) with only 14 members has beaten the giant Fulton Hogan's Roydon Quarry near Templeton.
The Court found ECan didn’t have the power to grant a “use-only” consent, for quarrying, when the original consent was issued for the “take and use” of irrigating pasture. ECan’s error was “fundamental”, the judgement said.
But the bad guys never give up. "ECan is working on a plan change which, critics say, will undermine the precedent set by the Supreme Court."
Of course they are.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/07/03/court-quashes-quarrys-water-consent-with-a-sympathetic-delay/
#Water #NZ #Consents #ECan