Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

This week the Environment Court found that the fish farm project in Katikati was ‘fanciful' and that the consents given by the council were inconsistent with the council's own regulations, even allowing for their anticipated amendments.

Strangely, the total absence of rules for fish farms did not deter the council from trying to press ahead with some indiscrete discretionary activity decisions. The case was never against fish farms. The court was not required to make any decisions on the viability of the project but the planning itself was very sketchy and short on details regarding the processing operation and the impact on the harbour.

Most upsetting for the residents was the arrogance of the council with the very limited pseudo-consultation allowed and the lack of support from some members of the Katikati Community Board, who accused the residents of being ignorant, uninformed and would not allow any discussion on the residents' concerns. Even if the community board saw its role only as an instrument of the council, a civilised information-sharing approach would have been appropriate. At no time were they interested in the requests from the residents who attended their community board's democracy sessions and the board made no attempt to inform or to seek any feedback from the public in general.

Currently the community board is upset over the decision being made on cell phone towers in the town. Apparently, the council did not bother asking them for any feedback or opinion. Why should they? The council communicates with the community board the same way the board communicates with the public. With this dysfunctional community board system we should all be grateful to the large group of residents who took umbrage at the arrogance and rudeness they had received and challenged the council decisions on behalf of the town.

The lesson learned in this exercise is nothing to do with fish farms. It is about ratepayers standing up and saying enough is enough. It cost the group thousands of dollars to exercise their democratic rights. It could have been so much simpler, much cheaper and less confrontational if the council and community board did the job for which they were elected and represented the people.