Bay of Plenty Regional Council told
Stuff, in response to a Local Government Official Information & Meetings Act request, that it incurred $203,798.47 in legal fees “in order to secure compliance with the RMA on this matter”.
Christel Yardley/Stuff
In an affidavit, Alan Merrie told the court they “foolishly put the cart before the horse, by beginning the process of tyre collection before we had the cash in the bank”. “This includes any advice relating to our initial response to the stockpiling, prior to charges being laid, costs associated with the first prosecution for contravention of an abatement notice, and the current matter relating to a breach of an enforcement order.”
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The tyre dump on Puketapu Road in TaupÅ s Western Bays which is concerning Mayor David Trewavas. That foam “just knackers waterways,” Trewavas told
Stuff. In 2015 the Taupō Mayor expressed “absolute shock” when the dump first appeared. The original stockpile, and now additions, are the result of a long-running saga involving Bay of Plenty rubber recycling business Ecoversion Limited – now in receivership. It began in 2015 when Hamilton City Council awarded Ecoversion a $280,000 contract to take 150,000 tyres from the failed Frankton Tyre Yard. Ecoversion failed to follow through on a promise to start a tyre-recycling business in Kawerau and with tyres piling up – and being shunted to sites like that in Taupō and a quarry in Waihī – the Bay of Plenty Regional Council issued abatement notices in November 2015.