Timaru councillor challenges staff over lack of action enforcing consent conditions

Saturday, 21 June 2025

Timaru District councillor Allan Booth blames the council for allowing the continuation of a “shambles out at The Showgrounds” and says the developer has not been held to account over consent conditions.

Timaru’s council has appointed an officer to handle the enforcement process over a developer’s failure to meet its consent conditions but says some work involving a nearby culvert will start within three months.

Councillor Allan Booth asked questions about the intersection outside the Showgrounds retail centre during Tuesday’s infrastructure committee meeting, saying the road outside the development, State Highway 1/Evans St, was “falling to bits” every hour.

Booth said he had asked staff for a progress report after attending a meeting with council representatives and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) staff on May 15.

His “take-out” from that meeting was that the council had not held the consent holder to account in terms of its consent breaches.

“It’s been us that … have allowed that … shambles out at The Showgrounds to continue and not be sorted out,” he said.

Councillor Booth says the road at the intersection that provides an entrance to The Showgrounds is “falling to bits”.

“Day by day it’s getting worse and worse.”

Booth said he had been under the impression the council had been waiting for a complaint, but NZTA had made it “quite clear” that the developer was “in breach”.

“And we should actually have been holding the consent holder to account … and enforcing the rules,” he said.

“I’m concerned we’re not taking this seriously enough. The ball’s in our court and I would like to know what is happening.”

Council chief executive Nigel Trainor said he did not accept the fault lay solely with the council.

“TDC has been working hard with both NZTA and the developer just to find a pathway. We have requested time and time again for plans to be sorted and to be implemented.”

Traffic travels along State Highway 1 through the intersection at the entrance to the retail development.

Trainor said the developer had been expected to come up with a plan and then take it to NZTA for approval.

“NZTA will not work collaboratively with the developer to try and short-circuit that.”

Trainor said the council had also “worked hard” to facilitate meetings to get the two parties to come up with a solution.

“That has been quite fraught as well. So, it’s not 100% TDC.”

He said there had been an opportunity to force the issue by not approving the temporary entrance to the development.

Infrastructure group manager Andrew Dixon and councillor Sally Parker during Tuesday’s committee meeting.

But that entrance, which was still in use, had been approved by NZTA, he said. “From that point on we were on the back foot.”

Infrastructure group manager Andrew Dixon backed up Trainor’s comments and said the approval of the temporary intersection was “contrary to [the] council officer’s recommendation”.

“Once that temporary intersection went in, you basically lost a very big lever,” Dixon said.

However, Booth said his problem remained that the council had not enforced consent conditions.

Group manager of environmental services Paul Cooper said his recollection of the meeting in May was not the same as Booth’s.

He gave a brief rundown of the issue. “The first developer … sought time to restructure the finances of the development and gave certain assurances around compliance if we were able to accommodate that.”

Environmental services group manager Paul Cooper speaks at Tuesday’s meeting.

Cooper said it was “perfectly reasonable” for the council to accommodate that.

“We allowed that to play out, and now we’re dealing with a new developer and we still don’t have compliance.”

He said the council had started an enforcement process around the time of the meeting in May.

Cooper said the council had requested a complaint from NZTA so the agency could articulate the problem for it.

The council had then written to the developer outlining how it was not meeting its consent, and asking for an explanation.

“We’ve received that response from the developer … in part … and we’re working through that.

An aerial view showing State Highway 1/Evans St and the intersection that gives access to The Showgrounds.

“We’re in an enforcement conversation with them, and we’re following the process that’s outlined in our enforcement policy in regard to how we achieve compliance,” Cooper said.

He said the council had also recently appointed enforcement officer Aaron Hakkaart to handle the matter.

Hakkaart told councillors his appointment would allow him to keep the issues separate from any future consent applications and take a “deep dive” into the consent history and examine the consent conditions that apply.

He said the aim was to split the issue into two key areas covering the maintenance and monitoring of the temporary intersection, and the creation of the permanent intersection which met the needs of all parties.

He said it was hoped that approach would prevent the issue being “conflated” into something that it was not.

Booth said he was “pleased to see” someone taking ownership within the council.

“This entire Showgrounds development has actually been one of compromise and probably death by a thousand cuts by a developer who knows the system, how to play the council, and we’ve been a victim of that.

Councillor Stu Piddington, pictured during Tuesday’s meeting, has sought an assurance no further consents would be granted for the property while the one in question was being resolved.

“You need to take a harder line, and it’s gone on too long.”

Councillor Stu Piddington said he agreed with most of Booth’s comments and asked for a time frame for the next steps as well as an assurance that no further consents would be issued for the property until the one in question was sorted.

Hakkaart said the responses to the developer were sitting in draft and would be sent once finalised within two days.

He said the developer would be given a time frame in which to respond and the council was “cognisant of the need to reach a resolution, make progress on this as soon as possible”.

He said any future consents would need to be assessed on their merits in the context of the legislation.

Timaru business owner Darryl Pyke looks out at the culvert in 2023. On Tuesday, council land transport manager Susannah Ratahi said she understood work was expected to start on the culvert in September.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate to use a consent application to try and enforce compliance with something else … otherwise we’ll end up ourselves in a position where we’re having to defend our approach.”

Piddington asked at which stage the council would decide to take further action, saying: “That’s what people want to know.”

Cooper said he could not put a timeline on that, but staff were “working through a process” and at a certain point Hakkaart could make a recommendation to proceed to a higher level of enforcement.

In such a case, that would have to go to a panel for consideration before any further enforcement such as court action could be taken, Cooper said.

Council land transport manager Susannah Ratahi also gave an update on the upgrade of a culvert near the intersection.

She said NZTA would fund the replacement, with a small extension “required to facilitate a permanent intersection” to be funded by the developer.

“NZTA have gone out to tender; they have a preferred contractor. I believe the contractor is awarded and the culvert replacement part is starting in September.”

The Government Electronic Tenders Service showed NZTA awarded the contract to Fulton Hogan for $1.69 million in March.

Ratahi said NZTA was “still working with the developer” over the funding arrangement.

Trainor said the issue was that the two parties were not seeing “eye to eye” over whether the culvert should be extended.

Booth replied saying the consent was issued “based upon the roading being widened and the developer picking up that extra cost”.

Trainor said that was correct.

Councillor Sally Parker, who chairs the committee, had the last word on the matter before closing the meeting.

“Historically, there’s lessons learnt along this journey and … we’ll just look forward to September when things are in motion again.”