Waivers and directions from the Environment Court

Due to the large number of submitters involved in the PAUP process, the Environment Court has made certain waivers and directions.

Those waivers and directions were made under section 281 of the Resource Management Act 1991, and approved special procedural arrangements for appeals lodged in the Environment Court under section 156 of the LGATPA only.

The special procedural arrangements will reduce the burden on everyone involved in the appeals process, particularly the serving of large numbers of paper documents on other persons.

A copy of the courts decision granting the waiver and directions is available on the Environment Court website.

Summary of special procedural arrangements for certain Environment Court appeals

Arrangements relating to Notice of Appeal

• Parties are required to file a hard copy (signed original) of any Notice of Appeal with the court, but the requirement to file a second hard copy is waived.
• The requirement to serve a copy of any Notice of Appeal on every person who made a submission on the provisions or matter to which the appeal relates is waived.
• Any Notice of Appeal may be filed electronically with the Environment Court by emailing unitaryplan.ecappeals@justice.govt.nz.
• Any Notice of Appeal may be served on the council electronically by emailing the Unitary Plan team.

Arrangement relating to 274 parties and 274 notices

• Any party seeking to join an appeal as a section 274 party may file an electronic copy of the required 274 notice by emailing unitaryplan.ecappeals@justice.govt.nz.
• 274 notices that are filed electronically may be signed or unsigned, with no hard copy needed for filing.
• There is no requirement to serve a copy of any 274 notice on "all other parties". Instead, service of any 274 notice will be effected by the court uploading copies of those notices on the Environment Court website.
• An electronic copy of any 274 notice must be served by email on the Appellant and the council.

Any other appeal documents

• The Environment Court has directed that unless hard copy documents are specifically required, all other documents relating to any appeal may be filed and served electronically.

For a full description of these arrangements, see the Environment Court website.