THE Environmental Tribunal is aiming to hear The Next Generation Holdings (Fiji) Pte Ltd’s (TNG) appeal in November, with Magistrate Charles Ratakele saying he wants the matter completed this year.
At yesterday’s Tribunal hearing TNG’s lawyer Feizal Haniff said the company had received a substantial number of supplementary documents from the Department of Environment.
Mr Haniff said TNG was still awaiting further documents needed to form part of the appeal record and would write to the department seeking their release.
However, the department’s lawyer, Apete Bauleka, said it would maintain its position that the documents were internal records that were not before the Director of Environment when deciding to reject TNG’s Environmental Impact Assessment report.
In response Mr Hanif said TNG would seek directions from the tribunal if the department maintained this position.
TNG appealed the Director of Environment’s June 4 decision to reject its EIA report for the proposed Vuda Point development, arguing the decision was based on errors of law and an improper exercise of statutory powers.
The matter was adjourned to September 24 for further directions.
