More opponents of Dunedin funeral directors Hope and Sons took aim at the company's proposed new cremator in South Dunedin on the second and last day of a resource consent hearing yesterday, but the company, through counsel Phil Page, had the last word.
The joint Otago Regional Council-Dunedin City Council hearing ended just before noon, with regional councillors Gretchen Robertson and Louise Croot, and independent commissioner David Benson-Pope for the city council, adjourning proceedings to make their decision.
Hope and Sons has applied for consent to install the cremator at its business on the corner of Andersons Bay Rd and Oxford St, near a food outlet, supermarket and homes, a move expected to halve the number of cremations at the city council's Andersons Bay crematorium.
Opponents again raised concerns about accumulation of toxins, loss of property values in the area, and the possible rise in prices at the Andersons Bay crematorium if Hope and Sons withdrew its business.
Oxford St resident Nola Walker said there were worldwide concerns and studies about cremators and their discharge.
There were schools nearby and pupils could suffer from exposure to toxic discharge, she said.
Ms Walker, who had travelled to Wellington to research cremators there, said her health had already been affected by toxic spray from an incident 30 years ago.
Her concerns about toxins were not allayed by evidence from Hope and Sons that the emissions were harmless.
Moira Hoyt, of Cashell St, tabled a media report of a British local authority that was considering freeze-drying corpses, dipping them in liquid nitrogen, then shattering the remains through vibration.
That was an emission-free method, and something that could be the future of body disposal.
Continuous emissions from the cremator, that would build up over a period of time, were a concern for residents.
"We are human after all, and have reverent feelings about the dead."
She also asked for restricted hours of operation.
Oxford St resident Alan Bradshaw said he had asked work colleagues if they would buy a house close to a cremator, and they had responded they would not, so he was concerned about a drop in property values.
Bayview Rd resident Lew Campbell said none of those proposing the scheme lived within 2km of the site.
The noise of the cremator would be the same as a lawn mower, he said.
Regional council senior resource officer Mathew Bell said despite listening to submitters' concerns, he stood by his recommendation to grant consent.
In his right of reply, Mr Page said Progressive Enterprises' concerns, raised on Monday, about mourners attending funerals using the Woolworths car park did not have anything to do with the consent for the cremator.
The issue had never been raised in the past with Hope and Sons, and was something to be dealt with between the two neighbours.
On submissions about the effect of the proposal on the city council's Andersons Bay crematorium, Mr Page said that was a trade competition issue, as the council charged for its services, and was an "impermissible" argument.
Both crematoriums were in the same "air shed", and there would be no more cremations in that air shed if the Hope and Sons proposal went ahead.
On health issues, he said the only expert peer reviewed evidence was from the applicant.
"That's the evidence you must rely on."
