Latest election results for the council have delivered a shift in the “fors” and “againsts” regarding the dam, with the numbers appearing to be stacked thinly against the project, 5-4.
A key shift in the council dynamic occurred with the voting in of Napier representative Paul Bailey, a committed anti-dam campaigner.
But the council’s acting chairman Fenton Wilson said regardless of how any new councillors viewed the project, there was little any new council body could do until the critical Supreme Court case now in play was resolved.
That concerned the land swap where 22ha of Department of Conservation land on the dam site was being exchanged for 170ha of private land.
The Court of Appeal overturned a decision allowing that to happen and DOC and the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company were appealing against that decision in the Supreme Court.
An outcome of that decision was not expected until next year.
“The Supreme Court decision has a very wide-ranging impact, not only upon the dam project but for other DOC land swaps proposed around the country.
“That includes the relocation of Franz Joseph village due to natural hazards – it can’t happen without approval on that land.”
Wilson dismissed any talk about the election result requiring a moratorium on the dam’s construction.
“The decision had already been made by the council and we have a large institutional investor waiting in the wings for the court case to be resolved. The dam had been dealt with prior to the election.”
Wilson confirmed he remained chairman till election results were confirmed and would oversee an extraordinary meeting of the old council to accept the audited annual report.
“Then, as happens with any council, we do not have a chair until October 26.”
He said he was not surprised by the level of division that existed in the council over an issue that was one of the biggest faced by any council in the country.
“But that is what happens when you are a council with the intestinal fortitude to deal with these big issues.”
