Marine Centre has landed
1/11/2006 12:00:00 a.m.
MARINE Education Centre Trust chair Stuart Macaskill is absolutely delighted the project has been granted resource consent.
"We believe the commissioners considered all the environmental issues and recognised the substantial community benefits and the national environmental benefits that will be delivered by the Wellington Marine Education Centre, a facility that will be the first of its kind for New Zealand," Macaskill says.
The MEC will include an educational center and aquarium, library and research space, and a café with seating for 155 people. Groups will be able to spend the night in the aquarium "underwater" in the viewing area which it is hoped will feature one of the largest single panes of glass in existence.
Save the Point, a group opposed to the centre being built on Te Raekaihau Point, have yet to decide whether to appeal the decision. Appeals must be lodged by November 16.
The commissioners noted that the MEC was an exceptional project and that it is unlikely any other project would have been granted consent to build on the seaward side of the point.
"We are very grateful to the organisations that made expert submissions in support of the project including the Department of Conservation, the Wellington Conservation Board, the Wellington Tenths Trust, the Marine Sciences Society of New Zealand, NIWA and the Royal Forest & Bird Society," says Macaskill.
"They all helped enormously to ensure greater understanding of the wider implications of the establishment of a marine education centre on the Wellington South Coast."
He says the MEC could open by the middle of 2008, subject to securing funding and detailed design plans.
