Comments on the Long River Judicial Review Decision from Chris Gedye, KWGS Legal Advisor 14 May 2025

Keep Whangaparāoa’s Green Spaces (KWGS) supporters will recall that last year, the owner of the Gulf Harbour golf course filed a Statement of Claim in the High Court seeking to overturn Auckland Council’s decision to publicly notify Long River’s Resource Consent application to alter the legal boundaries of the golf course land with the stated intent of ultimately selling half the golf course for residential housing.

At the time the Resource Consent application was lodged with Council, KWGS made submissions requesting the Council to publicly notify this Resource Consent Application.

The Commissioner responsible for determining whether or not the Resource Consent application should be publicly notified, decided that it should be.

This was very significant because, had it proceeded on a non-notified basis, it would not have been possible for KWGS to make any submissions as to why the Resource Consent should not be granted.

Also, there was no right of appeal to contest a decision to grant the Resource Consent.

Consequently, KWGS was very pleased with the Commissioner’s decision to publicly notify the application as this meant KWGS could make submissions as to why the Resource Consent application should not be granted and retained the right to appeal any decision granting the Resource Consent.

Long River then appealed the Council’s decision and on 18 February the matter was heard in the Auckland High Court by way of what is called a “Judicial Review”.

The decision of the Court has been released and in summary, the judge rejected Long River’s application to have the Council decision to publicly notify the Resource Consent application set aside.

This is great news as it means KWGS can now make submissions and appeal any decisions that are inconsistent with KWGS’s strategy to have the land restored as an 18-hole golf course as required by the 999 year encumbrance.

It is particularly gratifying to see that the Court’s decision aligned totally with the original submissions made by KWGS.

The decision also means that any prospective purchaser of the golf course land is now very much on notice that they cannot “sneak” through any subsequent Resource Consent application to deal with the land by way of a non-notified application.

Whether or not the Court’s decision will be further appealed by Long River to the Court of Appeal is not known but given the case law supporting the Judge’s legal reasoning, any appeal would have very little chance of success.

You can read the entire judgement yourself on the KWGS Website here: 

https://www.kwgnz.org/key-documents.html

For KWGS information contact:

Howard Baldwin: comms@kwgnz.org

KWGS Website: www.kwgnz.org

KWGS YouTube: www.youtube.com/@KeepGreenSpaces

KWGS Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/190068190752030