Port of Tauranga to compensate iwi for ‘wasted effort' after aborting resource consent application

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The expansion of Port Tauranga continues to hit legal snags.

A company that dragged local iwi and hapū through years of litigation only to walk away at the eleventh hour has been ordered to pay for the cultural work it failed to do itself.

In a recently released Environment Court ruling, the court said Ports of Tauranga (POTL) must compensate them for the "wasted effort" of preparing and presenting cultural evidence the company should have addressed from the outset.

"The participation of hapū was essential to the court's understanding of the cultural, social and environmental effects associated with the proposed expansion," Judge David Kirkpatrick wrote.