Waimate Mayor Craig Rowley recalls how “highly disappointing SIRRL’s approach to community communication had been.“ At a Waimate District Council public workshop, on November 19, 2024, Waimate mayor Craig Rowley described SIRRL’s approach to community communication as ‘disgusting’.
“When it comes to the proposed waste-to-energy plant, I’m disappointed, disgusted in the way that this council and our ratepayers have been treated, in the way that we have heard nothing from SIRRL in the last 12-18 months at all.”
“They have refused to engage with the council or … the waste-to-energy group and the general ratepayers, so I think that it has been exceptionally poorly handled, the way that this whole proposal has been put out there and put to the community.”
Waimate District Council request falls on deaf ears.
Rowley went further and said he was also disappointed that the project had made it onto the Fast-Track list.
On November 12, 2024 The Mayor on behalf of the Waimate District Council sent a letter to Minister Christopher Bishop requesting that the government remove SIRRL’s incinerator plant project called ‘Project Kea’ from the Fast-track approvals list. In a February 12, 2025 Otago Daily Times article, Mayor Rowley said he is yet to receive any response from Minister Bishop.