Rotorua council granted injunction after threats, abuse reported

A judge has granted Rotorua Lakes Council's second bid for an injunction to stop "interference" with sewerage pipeline construction - a decision with implications for ongoing protests against the project.

Local Democracy Reporting can reveal the council based its renewed application on two alleged August incidents, including one where a contractor said he overheard a protester saying he "felt like grabbing his shotgun and blasting them".

The council first applied in May to the Rotorua District Court for the injunction to allow it to progress construction of its $29 million Tarawera Wastewater Reticulation Scheme.

Iwi-owned tapu (sacred) Lake Rotokākahi sits near Tarawera Rd, which the pipeline follows.

The lake is overseen by the Lake Rotokākahi Board of Control, which held environmental and cultural concerns about the project it did not believe the council had addressed. The council has disputed criticisms of its consultation process and said interference had created safety issues that forced work to stop.

The board was listed as the first respondent on the council's injunction application, along with "persons unknown".

Judge Stephen Clark indefinitely adjourned the injunction application in July but allowed the council to renew it at any time.

The council did so in October.

Judge Clark's injunction order, dated 18 November, was released to Local Democracy Reporting by the court.

It stated no one could enter or remain in the active work zone on Tarawera Rd without council permission, except for traffic passing through and Board of Control-authorised people accessing the boat ramp.

No one can stop, obstruct or interfere with the works or with any personnel, vehicles or council-authorised construction machinery during the construction period, the order said.

The council originally sought to keep people one metre from the work zone along Tarawera Rd. The injunction orders extend to the entirety of the road boundary, but exclude the boat ramp and a section of land beside it.

The order also stated unauthorised structures in the work zone must be removed within 24 hours of the order being served and no one could park in the zone, or in no-parking areas defined by traffic management, without authorisation.

Judge Clark's oral judgement summarised how between 26-28 August unknown persons accessed the worksite, allegedly prevented digging and drilling, interfered with the security fencing, and made threats to contractors present, "so much so that a decision was made that the works had to be postponed".

An affidavit from Universal Underground Ltd operations manager Baden James Neylon described how things escalated at the site on the evening of 26 August, following a 100-person protest hīkoi to the lake.

Neylon said a group of protesters "breached the security fence, security staff became outnumbered" and verbal abuse and threats were "hurled" at the workers, who were followed as they retrieved tools.

"On one of these trips, as I was walking from the worksite to my vehicle, a protester said, in a manner that was intentionally loud enough for me to hear, that he 'felt like grabbing his shotgun and blasting them [us]'."

An affidavit by senior council project manager Gerhardus Mostert, wastewater works engineer representative for the project, said interferences became too severe to not restrict access to the road reserve. There was a second boat ramp to the lake, he said.

If the application was successful, he said access along Tarawera Rd would likely be restricted to residents, council staff and contractors for about four weeks.

Board of Control co-chairman Wally Lee said in his affidavit the alternative access to the lake was unreasonable and inappropriate, being a 40-minute drive via a dirt forestry road.

In response to the council evidence he said, "our position is that we remained peaceful and have very clear rules for all those who attend our noho whenua".

Both the board and council can apply to vary the injunction orders.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.