The consent being reviewed is held by SJ Allen Holdings Limited and allows discharge of five waste types to land at a rural property it owns in Lauder, Central Otago.

ORC Chief Executive Richard Saunders says a decision to review conditions under section 128 of the Resource Management Act was made after careful consideration of a range of matters, including the information that was available at the time the original consent decision was made.

As required under the RMA, Council has served notice of its intention to review the conditions of the consent on the consent holder, setting out the conditions under review and the reasons for the review.

The review will proceed in accordance with the process prescribed in the RMA, which is broadly similar to the process that is followed for a resource consent application. This includes a separate assessment of whether the review should be notified or not. Any decision on changes to consent conditions would be made only after that process has been completed. Under the Act there is 20 working days to complete the next stage of the process.

Under the RMA the review process does not prevent the consent holder from continuing to operate in accordance with the existing consent conditions. ORC will continue to monitor the site and assess compliance with the consent while the review process is underway.

More information on the Lauder consent and the review process is available on ORC’s website.