Greetings All,

It could well be argued that we all have performed a valuable public service by bringing to light the inadequacies of the processes used to evaluate Project Hayes, not only by Meridian Energy but also by the Government and the territorial authorities charged with responsibilities for the local public interest, as well as those Crown entities which turned a blind eye to their responsibilities in return for payments from Meridian. So it is perplexing that the same group of private citizens and their supporters now face further, considerable costs to have legal interpretations of the Resource Management Act, far removed from  concerns for an outstanding landscape, argued in the High Court as a consequence of Meridian''s appeal.

The cost of opposing the appeal is estimated to be in the order of $80,000.00 - $100,000.00 towards which Save Central has already applied for a grant from the Environmental Legal Assistance Fund. While the grant is not assured and the source of the required balance not presently obvious, we should all take heart from legal counsel, Mike Holm''s, assurance that he will pursue the matter on behalf of Save Central without guarantee of payment, and that unsolicited donations are already arriving via Save Central''s website and mail box.  It seems clear that our Environment Court victory has already engaged wide interest so your further encouragement of friends, acquaintances and business contacts to help defend that victory by way of donation, will more than likely meet with a positive response.

Meanwhile, Mike will represent both the Maniototo and Central Otago Environmental Societies at the Case Management Conference on 14 December. Should any other party wish to have Mike represent them in the High Court, Save Central will be only too pleased to extend it''s umbrella accordingly. Those interested in taking up this invitation should contact me in the first instance.
I will endeavour to keep you informed as preparations for the case develop and hopefully, will evolve some capability to publish relevant documents on the Save Central website http://www.savecentral.org  Should you have any questions or suggestions, don''t hesitate to make contact. 

Kind regards,

Graye Shattky,
Coordinator,Save Central