The situation in Amberley has been murky for years, with breached court enforcements and bankruptcies adding to the confusion, and even last year ECan was unclear about who officially owned the tyres. The man who leased the Racecourse Rd yard where the fire happened, Michael Le Roy, started storing end-of-life tyres on the property in February 2016.
CHRIS SKELTON/Stuff
Tyres are only deemed an environmental concern once they are on fire and leak contaminants into surface or groundwater. He was collecting them for two companies he was linked to: Tyre Recycling Services New Zealand Ltd and 2016 Tyre Shredding Ltd. Just a month earlier, in January 2016, the High Court had granted an injunction preventing Le Roy and his linked companies from having anything to do with tyre recycling or tyre collections for three years.
A North Canterbury community group plans to take the regional council to court after a second tyre fire in three years sent toxic black smoke into the sky.
A North Canterbury community group plans to take the regional council to court after a second tyre fire in three years sent toxic black smoke into the sky.
STUFF
The enormous pile of at least 120,000 end-of-life tyres had been the focus of a legal battle for over two years. (Video first published January 11, 2020)
A company director has been ordered to fork out more than $50,000 after leaving North Canterbury residents infuriated by failing to remove a massive pile of tyres from a yard in Amberley. Annexure Services Ltd director Peter George Benden was fined $36,000 by the Environment Court on Wednesday for contravening a court order by not removing the tyres. Benden was also ordered to pay $20,000 towards Environment Canterbury s (ECan) expenses to have the tyres removed. “You have been party to a problem imposed on a community, which you do not have the means to resolve,” Judge John Hassan told him.