Day 1 of the Te Awamutu incinerator hearings

We’ve had a great start to our case to stop the building of the Te Awamutu incinerator at Board of Inquiry hearings in Kirikiriroa/Hamilton. We had a beautiful mihi whakatau from Mana Whenua at midday after which things kicked off in earnest.

Needless to say, the applicant (Global Contracting Solutions) case keeps shifting and changing every moment of the day - witnesses are being swapped in and out, new evidence is being filed - even after the case has started - all pointing to a very sloppy and incomplete application.

The company’s lawyer opened the hearing and a few preliminaries were discussed including the Wednesday site visit. 

Following that, our lead counsel, Dhilum Nightingale cross examined the company owner Craig Tuhoro Snr and operations manager Adam Fletcher. It was clear from their evidence that it is very much a “build it and they will come” situation with no actual contracts in place for the waste they want to burn - and according to both, after a sort, they will burn the whole lot of it: tyres, scrap metal leftovers (called floc), plastics and lots and lots of mixed solid waste!

We have a full day today - Tuesday - so lots more specifics tonight!