On December 1, 2024, Why Waste Waimate sent a letter to Fast-track minister Christopher Bishop raising concerns about the inclusion of SIRRL’s incinerator proposal on the list of projects included for fast-track approval. In a December 30, 2024, Timaru Herald article, SIRRL responded with director Paul Taylor stating the letter contained “factual errors, and has resulted in the company seeking legal advice over possible defamation proceedings”. When requested by the Timaru Herald to elaborate on the “factual errors” and “comments” Taylor referenced, the company refused to do so and a company spokesperson said Taylor’s statement was “all for now”.
WWW responded by saying, “WWW stands by the letter and states that Mr Taylor should elaborate on these unsubstantiated claims. If he believes errors were made that require addressing, why is he so reluctant to state what these so-called errors are?”
Allegation of abuse
The December 30, 2024, Timaru Herald article quoted SIRRL director Paul Taylor saying “Recent correspondence with WWW spokesperson, Robert Ireland had seen them receive only abusive language”.
While Mr Ireland accepts he called Mr Taylor a “gutless lying bastard”, he also says “Mr Taylor is omitting the lead-up conversation that resulted in those comments being made.” Furthermore, to claim that recent communication between Mr Ireland and the company had seen them receive only abusive language is untrue.
The comment came at the conclusion of an email conversation initiated by Mr Ireland in an attempt to get some information on where the proposal currently stood after a long period of silence from SIRRL.
“Mr Ireland emailed Mr Taylor on September 30, 2024, stating that the Waimate community were eager to know where the proposal currently stood and whether SIRRL were pursuing fast-tracking.
“On October 3, 2024, Mr Taylor responded ‘When we have all that is required to progress to the next stage our priority will be to update the Waimate community’.” Taylor did not respond to the fast-tracking question. Just three days later the Government announced the list of 149 projects included for fast-tracking with Project Kea on that list. SIRRL lodged its Fast-track application on May 1, 2024.