The cost to Milford Dart Ltd for hearings into its proposed $150 million Dart Passage Tunnel was "outrageous", coming in at a total of $70,000 for 10 days of hearings, MDL director Michael Sleigh told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
MDL had already spent $2.2 million in six years on its ambitious proposal to construct the 11.3km tunnel underneath two national parks.
The concession hearing process, including pre-hearing processing of submissions and internal work would cost the company $104,000, of which $7000 a day was being spent on the two weeks of hearings.
The Queenstown hearing began on Monday and is due to conclude tomorrow, while last week the panel sat in Te Anau for five days.
Mr Sleigh said while it was a public process, he had "never" been involved in a submission process "where so much time has been chewed up".
Each submitter who indicated they wished to be heard was allocated with 15-minute time-slots to address the panel - of the 54 scheduled to speak up to 2.30pm yesterday, 23 had not appeared, equating to almost four hours of down time.
"This is very expensive, but, it is what it is, we can't change that," Mr Sleigh said.
"I think the biggest frustration is the six years its taken ... it's been a long, long time."
The company has come under fire this week, with several submitters taking issue with MDL not meeting Glenorchy residents to discuss the proposal earlier.
Mr Sleigh said MDL visited Glenorchy six years ago, spoke to "a lot of people" and found many who supported it - including the Otago Conservation Board.
However, many new residents had since moved to the town, while some of those in support of the proposal had since left.
"Six years ago [the Otago] Conservation Board supported a plan change to allow consideration for the tunnel, but they're all different people now.
"Otago asked the minister for the plan change but it got rejected by the New Zealand Conservation Authority who wouldn't let us be heard by them.
"I firmly believe [the tunnel] is in regional national interest ... having people not spending, not sitting on the bus and not doing other things ...
"I don't think the trip there [to Milford] is the problem; it's the trip back.
"But, there are two sides to every story."
Mr Sleigh said MDL's parent company, Snow Farm, had been involved in an environmental project to transfer endangered species to the Matukituki Valley, while he was a founding trustee on the Quail Island project in Christchurch and worked on a wetlands project in Southland, as well as being a member of the Save the St James Theatre in Dunedin.
"It's a bit frustrating from my point of view - people are so concerned about the community, about our conservation and what we may or may not do ... I think we've got a good track record as people and part of this project is that we will put quite a major predator control project in place to help [protect endangered species]."
