Solid Energy awarded costs in SHVC snail case

13 March 2007

High Court awards Solid Energy costs in SHVC snail case

Solid Energy has welcomed a High Court decision awarding it costs of $5760 [Solid Energy estimates that the costs awarded will be $5760, based on the High Court scale.] in relation to Save Happy Valley Coalition’s (SHVC) unsuccessful judicial review of a Ministerial decision granting a Wildlife Permit to the company.

In his decision released last yesterday, Judge Simon France, noted that Solid Energy “is a commercial organisation that was put to considerable expense and expenditure of resource and it is entitled to costs in the normal way.”

He went on to say that while public interest litigation can serve a valuable role, “that cannot of itself always protect a body from costs. Solid Energy had followed the correct statutory process to obtain consent and was itself expending considerable resource in seeking to ensure a safe relocation [of native land snails at its Stockton Opencast Mine].”

Solid Energy was granted the Wildlife Permit by the Minister of Conservation and Associate Minister of Energy on 12 April 2006 to move the snails by hand and to carry out direct transfer of the snail habitat to an area which will not be mined. SHVC challenged the legality of the Ministerial decision and brought proceedings against the Minister of Conservation, the Associate Minister for Energy and Solid Energy, which were heard in the Wellington High Court on 6 December 2006.

To date more than 4,200 live Powelliphanta ‘Augustus” snails have been collected on the ridgeline of Stockton Opencast Mine in the Buller, leading Solid Energy’s experts to conclude that the snail population is much greater than initially estimated. To date 700 snails have been released back into the wild in a joint programme with the Department of Conservation. Solid Energy’s total costs associated with the Augustus snails are projected to be up to $10 million.

ENDS

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