After hearings in Alexandra and Cromwell, the Project Hayes wind farm saga will resume in a different town early next year - Queenstown.
Dates for four weekly sessions of the Environment Court appeal process were confirmed yesterday, starting on January 19.
No-one was available yesterday to explain why Queenstown had been chosen for the resumption of the appeal hearing, which was adjourned in Cromwell on August 8 by Judge Jon Jackson.
The adjournment followed a request from the Maniototo Environmental Society to introduce new evidence in terms of possible cumulative effects of TrustPower's $400 million Mahinerangi wind farm, which already has resource consent.
The final two weeks were scheduled to be heard in Dunedin but cancelled to give appellants time to prepare new evidence.
Judge Jackson said the Environment Court panel preferred to vacate the scheduled two weeks so the remainder could be heard in one sitting.
The appeal against Meridian Energy's proposed $1.5 billion wind farm on the Lammermoor Range began in Cromwell in July after the consent hearings lasted for five weeks between May and July 2007 in Alexandra.
The decision granting consent for up to 176 turbines was announced in November 2007.
Next year's hearing in Queenstown has been separated into two, two-week blocs, the first of which will begin on January 19 and run for five days in the Queenstown District Court.
The hearing will reconvene on January 26 for another five days at Rydges Lakeland Resort.
The second bloc of hearings, also at the Rydges, will begin on February 9 and end on February 20.
