OPPONENTS of the proposed Marine Education Centre say a second hearing is illegal.

Save The Point Inc have mounted a legal challenge in the Environment Court after the commissioners voting on a Resource Consent for the Marine Education Centre were unable to reach a decision. The commissioners reached a stalemate of two for and two against the centre at that hearing.

Save The Point says by not reaching a majority decision, the original hearing declined the motion.

Nick Dryden, Save The Point deputy chairman, says the proposal for a new hearing panel and date to consider the application is unlawful.

"They (the commissioners) have in fact declined the application. They need to acknowledge that. If the chairman does not have a casting vote and they cannot agree, the motion has been declined," Dryden says.

Clause 24(2) of the 7th schedule to the Local Government Act 2002 states the chairperson presiding at a meeting in the case of an equality of votes does not have a casting vote and therefore the status quo is preserved.

If the Environment Court accepts the application has been declined there will be no need for another hearing and therefore no Marine Education Centre, Dryden says.

The second declaration that Save The Point have lodged in the Environment Court is that one of the commissioners, voting on the Marine Education Centre’s Resource Consent, Sally Baber, was biased and should be retrospectively voted off. This means the outcome of the Resource Consent hearing would change from two votes for and against, to one vote for and two against the development.

"The (Wellington City and Greater Wellington Regional) councils maintained that there was no bias. There only needs to be a suspicion of bias for a commissioner to excuse themselves. If a normal person would suspect there was a bias then the commissioner should be excused," Dryden says.

Baber was a Wellington City Councillor prior to being one of the commissioners hearing the Wellington Marine Conservation Trust’s application for Resource Consent for the Marine Education Centre.

Dryden is emphatic that a second Resource Consent hearing is ridiculous.

"It’s obvious that it has been declined. It seems so ridiculous to rehash this all again."

If Save The Point fail to win their legal challenge in the Environment Court they will have to participate in the second hearing at their own expense, which infuriates Dryden.

"We have already asked council to fund us, and their response is they were not going to be funding anybody."

The council has provided $555,000 of funding towards the Marine Education Centre, and the Wellington Marine Conservation Trust has also sought an interest free loan of $7 million from the council to be repaid over 25 years.

"It seems so unfair that a developer should be funded by the ratepayer. It is going to be very onerous on the community to raise funds."

Dryden says a date for Save The Point’s legal challenge in the Environment Court has not been set, but the group will also seek costs from the councils for the Environment Court appearance. Dawn Tratt