Other potential site options
22 October 2019Hutt City Council are once again claiming in the media that the Wainuiomata floodplain site is the 'only current option'.
Here is a solution: other options for development waste instead of next to the Wainuiomata River include (and are not limited to) the Southern Landfill, Dry Creek Cleanfill, and the Silverstream Landfill.
I submitted an OIA request to HCC and as a result have discovered that HCC have not looked at other cleanfill site options, despite knowing that the Wainui site was nearly at capacity. This is because HCC were expecting this consent to simply be granted by now and now they are expecting the upcoming hearing to be a walk-over. Hence HCC have already offered and contracted use of the Wainui site to developers.
The OIA also reveals that HCC's reason for not using the Southern Landfill is that they don't want all those trucks to go along Petone foreshore. That's it. That's the reason. So it's ok for huge and heavy trucks to drive up the Wainui hill and through Wainuiomata - past schools & kindys. But not ok for them to drive through Petone. I get it. Imagine the outcry and the damage to the road. So why is Wainui different? This is classism. Class discrimination pure and simple.
What can you do? Call, email and write letters to Council, ask your local Councillor and Community Boards to take action and complain about this lack of concern for the environment and this terrible treatment of the Wainuiomata community. Donate to our Give-A-little page so that we have the funds to pursue this issue and hold all those responsible to account.