Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa and community group Sustainable Otakiri have had their cases against the expansion of the Otakiri Bottling Plant dismissed in both the Environment and High Courts and are now appealing to the Court of Appeal. The fight to prevent a water bottling plant expansion near Whakatāne is far from over with iwi seeking to appeal a recent High Court decision dismissing their opposition to the plant. READ MORE:* Council apologises after appropriating Māori proverb to encourage water conservation* Iwi lose fight to stop Bay of Plenty water bottling expansion* Threats to 'blow up' Otakiri Springs water bottling plantTROY BAKER/Whakatane Beacon Otakiri Springs plant manager Ben Frazer, Creswell managing director Michael Gleissner and Otakiri Springs CEO Jim Robertson are keen to start expanding their bottling plant as soon as possible and are disappointed with this latest setback. He said had Sustainable Otakiri engaged with Creswell NZ it would have found that all plastic used was recycled. If the plant were to be expanded, 250 construction jobs would be created immediately and 50 ongoing full-time jobs would be created in the plant.

Source: Stuff February 10, 2021 01:30 UTC