The rural community of Te Puna in the Western Bay of Plenty is rallying to be heard about non-compliant industrial activity in their area.

“The whole community is stepping up and taking some responsibility,” says Priority Te Puna spokesperson Alison Cowley.

The incorporated society, Priority Te Puna, was formed in March last year by locals who were concerned about the type of industrial activity that had been happening for years at Te Puna Business Park.

Currently, submissions are being sought on the retrospective resource consent for non-complying industrial activity by Tinex Group Ltd, that operates from 205 - 245 Te Puna Station Road.

Tinex Group is seeking retrospective resource consent from the Western Bay of Plenty District Council for storage and renovation of relocatable houses, storage of empty skip bins, portable fencing and building materials. As well as swimming pool shell storage and storage of large earthmoving machinery tyres.

The business is seeking resource consent for up to two years and because the business already operating, the consent is retrospective.

“The site is subject to the Te Puna Business Park Structure Plan, which requires development and infrastructure works to be completed pre-requisite to operating industrial activities. These pre-requisites have not been fulfilled in accordance with the Operative District Plan, hence the industrial activities do not qualify as permitted activities,” according to the WBOPDC website.

An abatement notice issued to the Tinex Group on May 18 2022 by WBOPDC stated the requirements that had not been satisfied included wetland planting, acoustic bunding, stormwater ponds, landscape planting and stormwater management.

The 12.2ha site owned by Tinex Group is one of three land titles that make up the Te Puna Business Park structure plan area.

The 12.2ha site owned by Tinex Group is one of three land titles that make up the Te Puna Business Park. Photo: Alisha Evans/ SunLive.

The business park is made up of 26 ha of land on Te Puna Station Road and is zoned industrial under the Western Bay of Plenty District Plan.

In 2005 the Environment Court ruled the land, in the Te Hakao Valley, could be zoned industrial, but with caveats around the type of activity permitted on the site.

These included industry, unless it required air discharge consent from the regional council, storage, building and construction wholesalers, retail with a maximum floor space of 100m2 for lunch bars or cafes, veterinary rooms, medical or scientific facilities and garden centres or nurseries.

The ruling also stated: “Industrial activities should not adversely affect the environment in other zones, in particular through noise, odour, visual impact or by traffic generation.”

It required industrial activities in “visually sensitive areas” should have “appropriate screening and landscaping.”

Wetland areas were also meant to be created because in the 1940s extensive earthworks occurred in the valley and the Minden Stream was diverted, draining the wetland that meets the Wairoa River, for pastoral land, says the ruling.

Cowley says: “The community feels this site is far from the positive contribution touted to them in 2005.  

“Everybody in the community was expecting a rurally orientated business park that would be an asset to the community.”

Cowley says she began raising her concerns about the activity happening in the area with the council in 2019.

She says she’s “really proud” of the community who have either made submissions, become a member of Priority Te Puna or donated to them.

Priority Te Puna has a board of 10 members that includes representatives from local hapu Ngati Taka and Pirirakau.

“It just has such a massive impact on so many people,” says Cowley.

The community are worried about industrial traffic near the school on Te Puna Road, Clarke Road and the pony club on Teihana Road, she says.

Damage to Te Puna Station Road after severe weather in late January. Photo: Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

The traffic has been compounded by a section of Te Puna Station Road being closed to vehicles between the Te Puna Station Road Reserve and Waipuna Hospice after an overslip and underslip from severe weather caused immense damage in January 2023.

There are issues with stormwater and flooding occurring on people’s properties as well, says Cowley.

The land is also culturally significant to mana whenua as Pirirakau historically occupied the Pukewhanake Pā at the headland of the valley and the wetland was once an important food source for them.

Pirirakau kaumatua Neville Bidios says the development is “culturally insensitive” to Māori.  

He says his father would walk through the valley with his aunty and mum collecting eggs and food.

“It was their food basket. It was their cupboard,” says Bidios, who is also a Priority Te Puna member.

“They've [the council] allowed him [Tinex Group] to choke the filtration of that cupboard … there's endangered species there.

“To us as Māori, it's mauri and the wairua, the spiritual side.

“That development, it's trampling on the mana, it's trampling on the mana of the area down there, and it's trampling on the mana of the people that are connected to that area, and the wider community.”

Cowley says the group’s end goal is to have all the mitigations put in place as per the environment court ruling.

“We understand that businesses have to operate somewhere, but wherever they have to be in the right place.

“You have to be compliant and you have to not degrade other people's lives.”

The area in yellow is the site owned by the Tinex Group. Photo: Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

WBOPDC general manager regulatory services Alison Curtis says Tinex group requested the resource consent be publicly notified.

“We are aware of some cultural concerns from tangata whenua that the area is of cultural significance. 

“As a result, we are appointing two independent commissioners to hear and decide the application – one with expertise in cultural and planning matters and Te Ao Māori, and the second with expertise in planning matters.”

Council staff recommended Rob Van Voorthuysen and James Whetu for the hearing and the decision will be made by the councillors at a meeting on Thursday.

Following these appointments and the submission period closing on 24 July, the consent hearing is tentatively scheduled to start 9 October 2023, says Curtis. 

More information can be found on the council’s website.

Asked how long the non-complying activity has been occurring and how many abatement notices have been issued to the Tinex Group, Curtis replied: “As this is an ongoing compliance/enforcement matter and specific matters are proceeding through the courts, we are unable to provide any further information.”

Tinex Group appealed the abatement notice and a hearing will be held through the Environment Court from July 31.

Tinex Group has been approached for comment.

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