New Chum Beach hearing suspended.

Hearings into an application for a subdivision at New Chum Beach (Wainuiototo Bay) have now been suspended for up to two months.

Late last Friday our Council was notified by the applicant's lawyers that there was a last-minute disagreement from one of the co-owners of the site relating to access arrangements to the beach and requested that the application be suspended.

The application, made by Ross and Deidre Mear is for a four-lot subdivision, all 15 hectares in size along with a 15m wide esplanade strip allowing for public access along the beach. Mr and Mrs Mear own a 50% share in the property with another separate family trust owning the other half.

Public hearings were to begin today and run for a week. A total of 187 submissions had been received with over 80 submitters requesting to be heard by a panel of three independent RMA commissioners.

"Our staff spent the weekend letting all the submitters know about this last-minute request," says David Hammond Chief Executive for the Thames-Coromandel District Council. "We know that some people were travelling great distances to speak in person and acknowledge the inconvenience and frustration in delays."

This morning at the hearing venue in Thames, the Commissioners met with the applicant's lawyer Mr Ian Cowper, Council staff and several submitters who turned up to be heard.

Mr Ian Cowper, told the Commissioners that the current dispute between the two title holders had no bearing on any other separate applications at New Chum.

Following discussions with all parties, the Commissioners agreed to suspend the hearing and give the applicants up to two months to resolve the situation.

"This also allows for time to submit an amended application and depending on the extent of the changes to the original application Council would also need to consider the possibility of re-notifying the application," says Mr Hammond. " In the meantime our Council will be passing on all related costs for the hearings so far, to the applicants".

Through their lawyer, the applicants have also apologised to everyone who has been inconvenienced by the delay, especially the submitters and the Commissioners.

The applicants

This latest application for development at New Chum has been made by Ross and Deidre Mear and is for the exact same piece of land on which a previous application was lodged in January 2014 by Coastal Land Trust Holdings.

The application by Coastal Land Trust Holdings - which is a separate identity - is currently on hold due to further information being sought from the applicant. Coastal Land Trust Holdings' application is for New Chum (Te Pungapunga Station) and includes more farmland. This application can be viewed here.

Coastal Land Trust holdings is aware of the New Chum (Wainuiototo Bay) application

ENDS

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