Appeal lost against dredging of Tauranga Harbour

A local iwi group have lost their bid against the dredging and expansion of Tauranga Harbour.

About 11am today, the High Court dismissed the appeal by Ngati Ruahine.

The appeal was lodged after the Environment Court came to the conclusion to go ahead with dredging.

In its appeal, Ngati Ruahine said from a Maori standpoint, and seen through the lens of the cultural and historical significance of the tangata whenua's (people of the land) environment, the consents had "huge adverse effects."

This included the dredging of the chanel itself, which ran through a mataitai, or designated kaimoana customary fishing area (the Mataitai reserve) established under the Fisheries Regulations 1998, authorised by the Treaty of Waitangi Settlement Act 1992.

In the court summary, the Judge Priestley said the Environment Court correctly considered the competing evidence and it gave "careful and sympathetic attention to the cultural evidence'' heard before the court.

Judge Priestley said: "I am satisfied that, in reaching its conclusions ... the Court made a correct evaluation ... and I discern no errors of law. Nor have counsel been able to point to matters in their submissions which have the status of errors in law.

"For all these reasons, including the analysis in the previous sections of this judgement, the appeal is dismissed.''

The Port company was granted a resource consent to widen and deepen the harbour by Bay of PLenty Regional Council in June 2010.

The proposed dredging would remove 15 million cubic metres of material, mainly sand but also fine sediment, some shell and boulders from Tanea Shelf alongside Mauao.