Te Mata Mushroom Company Ltd - Submissions Closed

For all complaints regarding offensive odours contact our pollution response team here.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has received an application from Te Mata Mushroom Company Ltd for a resource consent to discharge contaminants in to the air from a composting and mushroom growing operation, and associated activities, at their Brookvale Road, Havelock North plant. This is being publicly notified on 13 May 2017.

Full details of the application, the assessment of environmental effects and other information are in the links below. Please contact Principal Consents Planner, Paul Barrett (06) 833 8014 if you have any questions about the application or how to lodge a submission.

Submissions now closed.

For all complaints regarding offensive odours contact our pollution response team here.

Updates

November 2020

The appeal has been settled and a Consent Order issued has now been issued by the Environment Court. This new consent will now commence.

Consent order

May 2020

Court directed mediation has been delayed due to the COVID-19 restrictions.  The last Environment Court minute is here.

The Council will continue to work towards  resolving the appeal where possible in advance of Court proceedings.  In the meantime the Council will continue to receive and record any complaints about odour from the site. 

February 2020

The Regional Council is aware of two appeals that have been lodged with the Environment Court on the hearing panel’s decision (see links to appeal notices below).  Other relevant parties are able to join these appeal proceedings in accordance with s274 of the RMA. The Environment Court will issue its directions on these proceedings in due course. In the meantime, the new consent does not commence, and the activity continues under its existing resource consent.

Notice of Appeal

Appeal by CDL Land New Zealand Ltd

December 2019 - Decision

A decision was reached by an independent hearing panel on 19^th December 2019.

June 2019

Hearing information:

Application by The Te Mata Mushroom Company Limited

Hearing scheduled to commence Wednesday 31 July 2019 commencing at 1.00pm. The hearing is expected to run until 5pm on the 2 August 2019

The venue is the Ellwood Function Centre, 15 Otene Road, Waipatu, Hastings

The Council reporting officers’ reports and all expert evidence will be made available to you closer to the hearing date. 

Update May 2019

A joint hearing will be held on the HBRC and HDC applications from 31 July to 2 August 2019.  The venue and times for the hearing will be soon be confirmed.  Once these are confirmed, further information about the hearing will be sent directly to submitters and this page will be updated.

Update March 2019

The applicant has lodged an application for the required land use consent with Hastings District Council. Hastings District Council has publicly notified this application . More information on the HDC application and how to make a submission on this application are available on the HDC website here:

https://www.hastingsdc.govt.nz/say-it/article/1236/proposal-to-increase-the-intensive-rural-production-of-mushrooms-at-te-mata-mushrooms

Further updates on the timing of the hearing will be provided after the HDC submission period has closed.

Update 4 October 2018

The applicant has now lodged the required resource consent (land use) application with Hastings District Council. The intention is to align the two consent processes so that, if necessary, a joint hearing can be held. Further updates on the timing of any  pre-hearing meetings and hearing will be provided once HDC has made a decision on the need for notification of the land use consent application.

Update 6 September 2018

The Court recently issued a decision on the enforcement action taken by the Council over the discharge of odour from the site – see our media release

Sentencing notes and enforcement order:

Notes of Judge Thompson on sentencing
Enforcement Order

Lodgement of the HDC land use consent is required before 1 October 2018.  Once this application is lodged, the HBRC consent process will be able to continue, and further updates will be provided on pre-hearing meeting and/ or hearing dates and times as these are confirmed.

Update 26 February 18

The applicant (Te Mata Mushroom Company) is preparing consent applications to HDC, CHBDC and HBRC as part of a proposal to relocate the Phase 1 composting from the existing site at Te Mata, to a new site at Mt Herbert Road, Waipukurau.  These applications are expected to be lodged in March, at which point the detail and timing of what is proposed will be known.  At the current time the application that was lodged with HBRC in December 2016 remains on hold awaiting lodgement  of the HDC land use consent.  We understand that this consent will also be lodged with HDC in March. We are also aware that the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (DHB) has investigated the possible health impacts of the operation at Te Mata. HBRC is committed to holding a meeting with submitters to discuss the application, but consider that this is best done when further details for the alternate proposal and comment from the DHB is available.  This is now likely to occur in late March/April.  In the meantime, HBRC compliance staff will continue to respond to complaints.

Update November 2017

The application was publicly notified and over 300 submissions were received.  The submission from Hastings District Council identified that an additional resource consent is required from HDC.  HDC requested through their submission that the regional council consent application be placed on hold until the application for consent to HDC is made.  This will allow for the two consents to be processed together, and the effects of the activity as a whole considered.  This way, other effects associated with the applicant’s proposal, such as traffic and noise, can also be considered at the same time.  

Te Mata Mushroom Company’s planning consultant has advised that they are in the process of having the technical reports required to support the HDC application completed.  They expect that these assessments will be available within the next few weeks, and they then expect to lodge the application with HDC prior to Christmas.  HDC will need to decide on notification of this application. If it is notified, and there are submissions, we would suggest holding a joint hearing so that the two consents can be decided on together.  We are likely to arrange a pre-hearing meeting in advance of any formal hearing.  These are used to provide a less formal forum for discussion of the application, so as to try and clarify and narrow down the issues of concern.  A pre-hearing meeting is not likely until early 2018. 

Update July 2017

Hastings District Council’ s (HDC) submission on the application identified that a land use consent is also required for the proposed operation.  HDC requested that the Regional Council require that this additional application to be made using s91 of the RMA.  This will enable the full effects of the proposal to be understood and considered together.  the Regional Council has made this request, and the the Regional Council air discharge application will remain ‘on hold’ until this additional application is made to HDC.  The HDC submission can be viewed on the HDC website.

20 January 2021

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