Appeals and objections

• Objections - the process
• Appeals - the process
• Notices of Inquiry

If your application for a consent was declined denied, and it was not publicly notified, or publicly notified or limited notified and did not receive a submission, you can:

• object to the decision on and any conditions attached to your application under Section 357 of the Resource Management Act. This requires the ARC to reconsider its decision or
• appeal all or part of the decision to the Environment Court under Section 121 of the Resource Management Act.

Objections - the process

1. The reasons for any objection must be set out in writing and received by the ARC within 15 working days of you receiving the decision letter.
2. The council will consider the objection as soon as practicable.
3. If a resolution cannot be reached through informal discussion, a hearing will be held to hear the objection.
4. If there is to be a hearing, you will be given at least 5 working days notice of the commencement date, time and venue.
5. The ARC consents officer involved in processing your application will prepare a brief report on the objection, summarising the matters raised, and will include a recommendation on the objection for consideration by the hearing committee.
6. The objection may be dismissed or upheld in whole or part. You will be given notice in writing of the decision and the reasons for it.

If you are still unhappy with the council's decision, you may then appeal to the Environment Court against the decision on your objection under section 358 of the Resource Management Act.

Appeals - the process

If your application did receive submissions, you or any of the submitters can appeal all or part of the decision to the Environment Court under Section 121 of the Resource Management Act.

Your appeals must be lodged with the Environment Court registrar (Auckland) within 15 working days of receiving the notice of the decision. You must then serve copies of your notice of appeal on the ARC and everyone involved (applicant/consent holder and all submitters) within 5 working days after lodging your appeal. You must then advise the Environment Court registrar when you gave each person their notice of appeal.

View copy of the consents appeal application.

The Environment Court will consider all appeals, and if it is considered that mediation would be appropriate they will contact all parties and suggest this.

If an appeal is complex, or there are a group of related cases, then the court will give notice of its intention to hold a pre-hearing conference. The purpose of the pre-hearing conference is to ensure that proper preparations are made to hear the proceedings at a later date.

The court will notify all parties of the time and place for the appeal hearing.

Notices of Inquiry

When an application is for a restricted coastal activity, the council will make a recommendation to the Minister of Conservation, who will make a decision on the consent application.

If the applicant or submitter/s are unhappy with the recommendation, then a Notice of Inquiry can be lodged with the Environment Court, seeking a review. The procedures for requesting an inquiry is the same as for lodging an appeal. However, you must also notify the Minister of Conservation if you are appealing a recommendation for a restricted coastal activity.

The Environment Court will review the recommendation and then report to the Minister of Conservation, who will make the final decision on the application.