Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The High Court has ruled Canterbury’s regional council erred when it allowed farms to discharge nitrates and other pollution without resource consents, but stopped short of ordering it to change the rule.

The decision comes as the region grapples with increasing levels of nitrate in its waterways, and the effects on human and environmental health.

The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) asked the court to quash a regional plan rule which allowed some discharges from farming – such as nitrates and phosphorus – to be classed as permitted activities (not requiring resource consents) but the judge found too much had time had passed since the plan went into force.

The judgement, released on Monday, confirmed the council’s rule making fell short of the law and went to the heart of Canterbury’s current nitrate crisis, ELI research and legal director Dr Matt Hall said.

Council’s rule making found lacking

Justice Mander found the regional council, Environment Canterbury, failed to properly consider and apply section 70 of the Resource Management Act (RMA) when it included the rule allowing some farming nutrient discharges as permitted activities.

Section 70 requires consideration of a number of points, including whether a rule could have any significant adverse effects on aquatic life.

The rule – rule 5.63 (Incidental Nutrient Discharges) – had “cemented the conditions for ongoing intensive farming even as nitrate pollution was already mounting”, Hall said.

ELI argued the rule breached the RMA, was unlawful and outside the council’s power.

By permitting discharges without adequate evidence the farmers would not breach minimum pollution standards, the rule removed a key safeguard, green-lighting further intensive farming in catchments already under stress, and locking in higher pollution loads, Hall said.

The organisation sought the removal of the rule, as well as other declarations about the law, but the court declined.

The RMA has clear prohibitions on the type of rules that can be included in plans in relation to fresh water, and the council “was not able to show how it stepped through the requirements of Section 70 or provided any reasons for why it deemed that Section 70 was met”, Hall said.

The court found records from the council’s regional plan hearings did not demonstrate it had sufficient evidence to conclude certain severe effects, including significant adverse effects on aquatic life, were not likely to arise from the rule.

Justice Mander noted the council had been “put on notice” during the hearings, given “clear controversy and competing professional views expressed by expert witnesses” on the health of the region’s waterways, and potential impacts of nutrient discharge, putting questions about the plan’s compliance with section 70 “clearly in play”.

‘Systemic failings’

Hall said it was “extremely concerning” the council did not meet the law in its planning process, something that had been found to differing extents in other ELI cases.

Llast year, the High Court ruled the council unlawfully granted a discharge consent to the Ashburton Lyndhurst Irrigation Ltd (ALIL) irrigation scheme, quashing the consent. Earlier this year, it found ECan made a material error of law in granting a consent to the Mayfield Hinds Valletta (MHV) irrigation scheme, but declined to overturn the consent.

“We’ve taken three cases now that relate to ECan decision making. And each of those cases, to different degrees, show problems with how ECan has applied to law, and this is in the context of a systemic failing … of environmental outcomes.

“In this case, the court’s been clear ECan did not discharge its statutory responsibility. To me, that’s a very important message for ECan to properly take on board, and in any new legal framework that has to be completely front of mind – for the regulator to be totally on top of its legal responsibility.”

Delays and accountability

While the court’s finding the council failed to consider the RMA when including the rule would normally make the rule subject to review, due to another part of the RMA – section 83, which only allows challenges to a regional plan in the three months after the plan becomes operative – too much time had elapsed, the court found.

ELI argued that rule applied to procedural issues rather than substantive ones, such as in this case.

“Even though the rule was made 12 years ago, it remains in force and it is central to the nitrate crisis people across Canterbury are experiencing today.”

“The court has found there’s been a failure to abide by a clear provision in the Act. So if that is the law as it stands now, that essentially once you’ve been through the Schedule 1 [plan-making] process and the plan’s been made, it can’t be challenged even if there are fundamental areas of law [at stake], that’s concerning and it’s something we will be examining quite closely,” Hall said.

The council submitted the proceedings came almost eight years after it approved the regional plan, and any changes would have significant consequences for those who had relied on the rule, including potentially requiring farmers to go through lengthy and expensive resource consent processes.

It told the court there was “no evidence” of any causal impact from the rule being included or that its continued application would result in environmental damage.

Neither party knew how many people could be affected, because those currently relying on the rule to discharge nutrients do not need to apply for consent.

In his decision, Justice Mander found section 83 barred ELI’s challenge, but even if it had not, the proceeding centred on “an administrative decision made some 10 years ago about a rule that formed part of a highly detailed and complex regulatory scheme which largely no longer applied” because the council had since added specific sub-regional rules for at-risk catchments.

Hall said where limits were in place there needed to be work done to ensure they were met.

“We have to actually change some of the activities on the ground which are contributing, and in many cases, have already surpassed those limits, in red zones in Canterbury. We can’t keep a situation going where the council has limits that are clear and part of the law, but it’s not actually changing the activity or setting the framework…

“We can’t ignore reality, biological and ecological reality.”

He said while the ruling was fairly technical, it boiled down to accountability – “holding regulators to account and implementing the existing law, and here the court’s found a failure to do that.”

According to the most recent Stats NZ data, Canterbury has the largest amount of irrigated agricultural land (480,000 hectares) in the country, and accounted for 70 percent of the country’s total dairy farming irrigation.

The council’s most recent annual groundwater testing showed nitrate increasing in 62 percent of 300 test wells.

In September, the council narrowly voted to declare a nitrate emergency.

RNZ has approached the regional council for comment.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Uncovering he mystery behind eel breed has proven to be a difficult task, but passionate scientists are far from calling it quits.

Senior lecturer at AUT, Dr Amandine Sabadel is a chemist, ecologist, environmental scientist and an eel expert.

She told The run home to Christmas that tracking technology has helped scientists find the first clues as to how and where eels spawn but there is still more to go in understand the process and location.

“In New Zealand, we have two-slash-three visitors… we have the shortfin, and we have the longfin eels. But we also have, from time to time, the Australian longfin that comes visit our shores.

“The suspected thing is that there is a big spawning event, so they gather in a place that they know where to go.”

However, she said they are still unsure how eels know where to go.

After the spawning event many eggs are hatched quickly, and the baby eels are only a few millimetres in length.

They then start growing and growing as they make their way back to New Zealand.

Dr Sabadel’s interest lies specifically in the mystery of where the eels go throughout this process.

She said while they can currently track eels using satellite tags, the technology cannot track live and must be pre-programmed.

“This is an issue, because the eels are actually diving very deep when they’re doing their migration… it can be to thousands of metres.

Although the trackers can stand the pressure, they can’t transmit meaning they have to be pre-programmed, which can cause issues.

“They can detach from time to time, or the eel can be predated,” Dr Sabadel

Spawning, unlike migration, happens around 100 to 140 metres in the sea, however there are still difficulties.

“You’re not going to see like a big cloud of egg material at the surface. So, you can’t satellite track it.”

“Tracking has given us the first clues, because over the years now, we have kind of a direction.

She said many research cruises from Japan have already been catching very small eels but are yet to catch the New Zealand longfin, which she says is the “holy grail’ of eel research.

The research Dr Sanabel is doing in her lab looks at indirect clues left behind by eels like DNA that the shed in the water

“We’ve narrowed it down to kind of three different places. So, we think that there is two spawning sites for the shortfin, and we believe that there’s one that goes to Australia, and one that goes to New Zealand.”

She said in general conditions for eels in New Zealand could be better, with pollution having a major impact on their environment.

“We have a problem with pollution of the rivers, obviously, that doesn’t make a suitable habitat for them.

“Even if they are very resilient animals, the health of our river is very important, and we should really think about this and looking at the type of pollutants, we put in them.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Far North town has received a very welcome Christmas present – running water for the first time in more than two months.

Residents of Kāeo, about 30km north of Kerikeri, have lived under a boil-water notice for more than a decade, but in October the town water supply stopped completely.

After 30 days with no running water in the town, Taumata Arowai, the national water authority, stepped in and ordered the Far North District Council to take over the privately-owned water supply.

Kāeo resident Anna Valentine said the taps started working again on Tuesday evening for the first time in 67 days.

“It’s an absolute relief. It was so nice to just see the water flowing again.”

Valentine said her family would now be able to celebrate Christmas without worrying about water, and she would be able to resume the cooking school she ran from her home.

She had been unable to run her business while there was no running water.

Valentine said a number of options for the town’s water supply had been canvassed, but reviving the treatment plant was the best possible outcome.

“Especially for the businesses here and places like the museum. It doesn’t have holding tanks or anything, so the ladies that volunteer there have been bringing water from home so they can flush the toilets this whole time.”

Valentine said she had been kept up to date by the council as work to restart the treatment plant progressed.

“Once they got into the plant they just had to do a bit of fixing and cleaning.”

She was grateful to Zap Water, the company contracted to top up water tanks and fill containers from a tanker truck parked daily opposite the Four Square.

Valentine said the town’s boil-water notice remained in place for now, with Taumata Arowai giving the council until March to bring the supply up to standard.

While she was thankful an end was in sight to the town’s water woes, it should not have been allowed to drag on for more than a decade.

“It’s been way too long worrying about the water for all these years, but significantly over the last few months. It’s taken a lot of emails and a lot of work to get people to listen and do something about it, and I’ve taken quite a bit of flak online for it. So I’m very happy for that all to be over – but I feel like people need to be held to account for letting this town down for so long.”

Kāeo’s water scheme supplies about 30 homes and businesses, as well as public facilities such as the toilets and memorial hall, along State Highway 10, the town’s main street.

The town supply was originally owned by the Far North District Council but was sold to Doubtless Bay Water in 2000.

Doubtless Bay Water exited in 2008, saying the scheme was no longer viable.

It was bought for a nominal sum by Wai Care Environmental Consultants, which owned and operated the water supply until Taumata Arowai’s intervention in November.

In August RNZ revealed Wai Care operator Bryce Aldridge had been trespassed from the treatment plant, which was on private land on School Gully Rd.

The land owner said he issued the trespass notice after he had not been paid rent for seven years. Aldridge said he had a document proving he did not have to pay rent.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The High Court has ruled Canterbury’s regional council erred when it allowed farms to discharge nitrates and other pollution without resource consents, but stopped short of ordering it to change the rule.

The decision comes as the region grapples with increasing levels of nitrate in its waterways, and the effects on human and environmental health.

The Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) asked the court to quash a regional plan rule which allowed some discharges from farming – such as nitrates and phosphorus – to be classed as permitted activities (not requiring resource consents) but the judge found too much had time had passed since the plan went into force.

The judgement, released on Monday, confirmed the council’s rule making fell short of the law and went to the heart of Canterbury’s current nitrate crisis, ELI research and legal director Dr Matt Hall said.

Council’s rule making found lacking

Justice Mander found the regional council, Environment Canterbury, failed to properly consider and apply section 70 of the Resource Management Act (RMA) when it included the rule allowing some farming nutrient discharges as permitted activities.

Section 70 requires consideration of a number of points, including whether a rule could have any significant adverse effects on aquatic life.

The rule – rule 5.63 (Incidental Nutrient Discharges) – had “cemented the conditions for ongoing intensive farming even as nitrate pollution was already mounting”, Hall said.

ELI argued the rule breached the RMA, was unlawful and outside the council’s power.

By permitting discharges without adequate evidence the farmers would not breach minimum pollution standards, the rule removed a key safeguard, green-lighting further intensive farming in catchments already under stress, and locking in higher pollution loads, Hall said.

The organisation sought the removal of the rule, as well as other declarations about the law, but the court declined.

The RMA has clear prohibitions on the type of rules that can be included in plans in relation to fresh water, and the council “was not able to show how it stepped through the requirements of Section 70 or provided any reasons for why it deemed that Section 70 was met”, Hall said.

The court found records from the council’s regional plan hearings did not demonstrate it had sufficient evidence to conclude certain severe effects, including significant adverse effects on aquatic life, were not likely to arise from the rule.

Justice Mander noted the council had been “put on notice” during the hearings, given “clear controversy and competing professional views expressed by expert witnesses” on the health of the region’s waterways, and potential impacts of nutrient discharge, putting questions about the plan’s compliance with section 70 “clearly in play”.

‘Systemic failings’

Hall said it was “extremely concerning” the council did not meet the law in its planning process, something that had been found to differing extents in other ELI cases.

Llast year, the High Court ruled the council unlawfully granted a discharge consent to the Ashburton Lyndhurst Irrigation Ltd (ALIL) irrigation scheme, quashing the consent. Earlier this year, it found ECan made a material error of law in granting a consent to the Mayfield Hinds Valletta (MHV) irrigation scheme, but declined to overturn the consent.

“We’ve taken three cases now that relate to ECan decision making. And each of those cases, to different degrees, show problems with how ECan has applied to law, and this is in the context of a systemic failing … of environmental outcomes.

“In this case, the court’s been clear ECan did not discharge its statutory responsibility. To me, that’s a very important message for ECan to properly take on board, and in any new legal framework that has to be completely front of mind – for the regulator to be totally on top of its legal responsibility.”

Delays and accountability

While the court’s finding the council failed to consider the RMA when including the rule would normally make the rule subject to review, due to another part of the RMA – section 83, which only allows challenges to a regional plan in the three months after the plan becomes operative – too much time had elapsed, the court found.

ELI argued that rule applied to procedural issues rather than substantive ones, such as in this case.

“Even though the rule was made 12 years ago, it remains in force and it is central to the nitrate crisis people across Canterbury are experiencing today.”

“The court has found there’s been a failure to abide by a clear provision in the Act. So if that is the law as it stands now, that essentially once you’ve been through the Schedule 1 [plan-making] process and the plan’s been made, it can’t be challenged even if there are fundamental areas of law [at stake], that’s concerning and it’s something we will be examining quite closely,” Hall said.

The council submitted the proceedings came almost eight years after it approved the regional plan, and any changes would have significant consequences for those who had relied on the rule, including potentially requiring farmers to go through lengthy and expensive resource consent processes.

It told the court there was “no evidence” of any causal impact from the rule being included or that its continued application would result in environmental damage.

Neither party knew how many people could be affected, because those currently relying on the rule to discharge nutrients do not need to apply for consent.

In his decision, Justice Mander found section 83 barred ELI’s challenge, but even if it had not, the proceeding centred on “an administrative decision made some 10 years ago about a rule that formed part of a highly detailed and complex regulatory scheme which largely no longer applied” because the council had since added specific sub-regional rules for at-risk catchments.

Hall said where limits were in place there needed to be work done to ensure they were met.

“We have to actually change some of the activities on the ground which are contributing, and in many cases, have already surpassed those limits, in red zones in Canterbury. We can’t keep a situation going where the council has limits that are clear and part of the law, but it’s not actually changing the activity or setting the framework…

“We can’t ignore reality, biological and ecological reality.”

He said while the ruling was fairly technical, it boiled down to accountability – “holding regulators to account and implementing the existing law, and here the court’s found a failure to do that.”

According to the most recent Stats NZ data, Canterbury has the largest amount of irrigated agricultural land (480,000 hectares) in the country, and accounted for 70 percent of the country’s total dairy farming irrigation.

The council’s most recent annual groundwater testing showed nitrate increasing in 62 percent of 300 test wells.

In September, the council narrowly voted to declare a nitrate emergency.

RNZ has approached the regional council for comment.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A New Zealand law professor is calling for the United Kingdom’s role to be considered when it comes to compensation for villagers impacted by the sinking of Manawanui last year.

The New Zealand navy vessel was surveying the south coast of Upolu when it struck the Tafitoala reef, caught fire, and sank on 6 October 2024.

Former Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa confirmed the New Zealand navy vessel was surveying the south coast as part of security for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) and King Charles, who was staying at a nearby resort.

New Zealand paid $6m in compensation to the Samoa government for the sinking but Professor Paul Myburgh from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) said what Manawanui was doing on the south coast of Upolu needed to be considered.

“We know that it was, had basically been called in aid to survey that reef by the UK government so I would be interested to know what the UK government thinks its ethical and legal duty is towards those villagers. Basically if they had not made that request to the New Zealand navy this whole incident would never have happened,” Myburgh said.

Letters released under the Official Information Act (OIA) show Samoa’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested SAT$10 tala – NZ$6 million – be paid by the New Zealand government following the sinking.

Pacific security expert Dr Iati Iati from Victoria University questioned whether New Zealand should be the only country paying compensation for the sinking of Manawanui.

“Given that Manawanui sank exactly around the same time that CHOGM was going on, it drew a lot of attention to Manawanui that perhaps they didn’t want to have drawn to it. It drew a lot of attention to the fact that there could be other actors involved other than New Zealand and Samoa.”

The wreck of Manawanui remain on the Tafitoala Reef and Samoa’s Marine Pollution Advisory Committee was expecting a wreck report in the coming month.

Professor Myburgh said even with the removal of “immediate dangers for example from fuel” the wreck continued to impact the environment.

“And what is particularly concerning here is that the local villages are totally dependent on that area for their food, for their livelihoods so I think that in that context that payment of that amount should be seen as being very much on the lower end of the scale,” he said.

The British High Commission and the UK’s Foreign Office were approached for comment.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Transport Agency is urging drivers to plan ahead for a safe summer road trip, as several accidents have snarled Auckland traffic on Christmas Eve.

It warned more cars on the road, tired drivers, and people driving on unfamiliar roads can all add up.

It encouraged everyone to check that their car was safe before heading off – and to avoid speeding, drive sober, and to watch for signs of fatigue. Also to drive to the conditions, which could change quickly, and to check the weather forecast before leaving home.

As for where the traffic will be…

Christmas Day

There is predicted to be some traffic in the North Island on 25 December, based on the Transport Agency’s data from previous years.

It will be busy on Auckland’s State Highway 1, from Manukau to Bombay, between 9am and 6.30pm.

It will be the heaviest between 10am and 1pm.

Further down, between Puhoi and Wellsford, it will be busy from 10am to 2.30pm.

In Waikato, it will be slow from Tīrau to Karapiro between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

On State Highway 2, from Pōkeno to Maramarua, the peak will be from 9.30am to 1.30pm.

In the Bay of Plenty, it will be busy from 10.30am to 12pm between Tauranga and Katikati on State Highway 2.

As well as on State Highway 29 in Kaimai, west of Tauranga, from 8.30am to 10.30am.

Down to the Manawatū-Whanganui Region, it will be a slog on State Highway 1 between Taihape and Waiouru from 10am to 3.30pm.

And from 10am to 12.30pm in Ōhau.

In the Wellington Region, it will be busy between Peka Peka and Ōtaki from 10.30am to 12pm.

There is only one place where Christmas Day traffic is predicted in the South Island, and that is on State Highway 1 between Ashburton and Christchurch from 8.30am and 10am.

Boxing Day

There is expected to be a lot more congestion on 26 December – on both the North and the South Island.

Beginning from State Highway 1 in Northland’s Kawakawa, in the Bay of Islands area, it will be busy for an hour from 2pm to 3pm.

And from Kaipara Flats to Pukerito from 9.30am to 1.30pm.

It will also be busy on Auckland’s State Highway 1, from Manukau to Bombay, between 9am and 6pm.

The heaviest period will be from 10am to 11.30am.

And between Puhoi and Wellsford from 9.30am to 4.30pm, with the heaviest period between 11am and 2.30pm.

In Waikato, it will be slow from Tīrau to Karapiro – once again – between 10am and 6pm.

On State Highway 2, from Pōkeno to Maramarua, it will be busy from 9am to 2pm.

And from 12pm to 1pm between Paeroa and Waihi.

In the Bay of Plenty, it will be busy from 10am to 3.30pm between Tauranga and Katikati on State Highway 2.

As well as on State Highway 29 in Kaimai, west of Tauranga, from 8am to 2.30pm.

In the Manawatū-Whanganui Region, it will be slow between Taihape and Waiouru from 10.30am to 4pm.

The heaviest period will be between 12pm and 3pm.

And from 9.30am to 5.30pm in Ōhau.

In the Wellington Region, it will be busy between Peka Peka and Ōtaki from 10am to 12.30pm, and from 4.30pm to 5.30pm.

In the South Island, it will be slow from 10am to 12pm on Canterbury’s State Highway 1 in Waipara, north of Christchurch.

From 1pm to 2.30pm in Kaikōura.

South of Christchurch, there will be traffic to Ashburton between 8am and 1.30pm.

And from 8am to 2.30pm on State Highway 1 in Timaru.

On State Highway 79 in Geraldine for a short period of time between 12pm and 1pm.

For even less time on State Highway 7 in Lewis Pass – between 12pm and 12.30pm.

And last, but not least, on State Highway 6 in Queenstown from 11am to 3pm.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

[xh Multiple hospitalisations due to synthetic drug use

A warning has been issued after multiple people were hospitalised in the last day after using synthetic drugs.

High Alert, a drug watchdog, said the cases had been linked to synthetic cannabis in the Auckland region with multiple hospitalisations reported in the last 24 hours.

A spokesperson said there had been a wider trend of increased harm related to synthetic drugs across the country in the last few months but the sharp increase in hospitalisations was a serious concern.

It wasn’t yet known which synthetic cannabinoid was responsible for the hospitalisations. High Alert said further analysis would be done by PHF Science (formerly ESR).

Extreme caution was needed if consuming synthetic drugs, the spokesperson said, especially in the Auckland region.

“If you or someone you know takes this substance and starts to lose consciousness or stops breathing, call 111 immediately.”

Synthetic cannabinoids could vary in strength, High Alert said, and what was a safe dose for one may be a fatal dose for another.

It was often diluted and sprayed onto plant material which led to different concentrations, which made it harder to predict how strong the effects would be.

People who had taken the drugs could collapse, foam at the mouth or experience temporary paralysis.

Effects could be made worse if use with alcohol or other drugs or medications, if a person was unwell or was experiencing mental distress.

Synthetic drugs were usually described as white, off-white or yellow/brown powders that were dissolved and sprayed onto dehydrated plant material and smoked, High Alert said, and there was often a chemical smell that was noticeably different from cannabis.

Anyone who did chose to use synthetic drugs should make sure not be alone and test a small amount first to see how it affected them.

Drugs could be tested for free at confidential drug checking services such as ones run by KnowYourStuffNZ, the New Zealand Drug Foundation and DISC Trust.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A man has been charged with murder after the death of a man in Hamilton last week.

Police were called to a home in Lake Crescent at 6.15pm on December 18, where they found two people seriously injured.

One of the inured, 55-year-old Jason Poa, also known as Jason Tipene, died at the scene.

Police said a 21-year-old man was arrested in Chartwell on Christmas Eve and charged with murder.

He would appear in the Hamilton District Court on Boxing Day.

Police said no one else was being sought in relation to the death.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Residents who evacuated due to a scrub fire near the Hawke’s Bay village of Fernhill have been allowed to return to their homes.

A Fire and Emergency spokesperson told RNZ there’s now one fire truck monitoring the scene, and the fire investigators have left.

The blaze broke out near Hastings on Tuesday, destroying multiple buildings.

Three firefighters experienced heat exhaustion, and one was transferred to Hawke’s Bay Hospital as a precaution.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand