The High Court has upheld a Southland District Council (SDC) decision to grant New Brighton Colleries Ltd access to council-owned forestry land near Ohai for coal exploration.

The judgement, released on 6 March, dismissed a legal challenge to the council’s decision by the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand.

The High Court said that none of Forest & Bird’s grounds for review of SDC’s decision were upheld and it dismissed the application.

The court judgement said: “There was a distinct logic to the Council’s approach in reaching the decision.”

The judgement finds that “it was reasonable, in reaching the access decision, that the Council have regard to the fact there would be later opportunities for consultation and input at the point when the actual extraction of coal was for consideration.”

SDC Mayor Rob Scott said it was a vindication of the council’s methodology in deciding to grant New Brighton Colleries access for exploration only. 

“We ensured that there was going to be an opportunity for the public to have their input in a final decision by requiring the consent to be publicly notified if it proceeded to the next stage."

“The judgement has reflected that council followed a sound process in reaching its decision in this matter,” Scott said.

Forest & Bird Campaigns Advisor George Hobson said Forest & Bird would be carefully considering the decision before deciding their next steps.

“Climate change is everybody’s responsibility, especially decision makers like the Southland District Council. As we’ve seen recently, climate change impacts all of us," Hobson said.

“The simple fact is the world cannot have any new coal mines if we want a safe climate."

“The International Energy Agency has called for an immediate end to new coal mines and the UN secretary-general has said all planned coal projects should be cancelled." 

“Every year, a new region of New Zealand has been suffering from massive floods, including Southland."

"Our elected decision makers need to step up and tackle these threats head on,” Hobson said.