A Morrinsville piggery whose acrid stench left neighbours with burning eyes and headaches and schoolchildren holding their noses in class has been fined $45,000.

Owner Ken McIntyre plans to move and may expand but declined to identify the new location.

Mr McIntyre has now been fined $95,000 after three prosecutions since 2007 for odour and other consent breaches at his Hutchinson Rd piggery, near the Kereone school and hall and several homes and farms. (Read on …)

The biggest and most expensive roading project ever in New Zealand is now up for tender after funding of up to $2 billion was approved for the job.

The Waterview Connection will link the southwestern motorway with the northwestern motorway and will include two three-lane tunnels along the route.

Once completed, the western ring route will provide a 48-kilometre alternative to State Highway 1 and the Auckland Harbour Bridge. (Read on …)

 A bad smell hanging over Gisborne city today (Thursday 1 July) has been attributed to corn waste. Gisborne District Council issued a consent in 2000 for Cedenco to dispose of vegetable waste from their production processes onto land they lease outside of the city boundary near the airport.

This food waste is generally plowed back into the land it comes from effectively composting the waste.  This practice rarely causes odour problems. The cause of the smell which was first noticed in the city on Tuesday is corn waste that was piled onto the leased land in April. The land has been used to store pumpkins and these have been left on the land to dry so they can be processed later. (Read on …)