A decision on the proposed multimillion-dollar wind farm planned for Slopedown, near Wyndham, will now not be made until March.
The Contact Energy proposal was accepted into the fast-track process under Covid-19 legislation, which shortened the length to accept or deny a resource consent.
Hearings are not held and only invited parties are able to submit on the proposal.
Contact Energy is proposing to build a 55-turbine wind farm in the Slopedown area.
The three-person panel which is making the decision whether to allow the project had originally set a date of December 19 to reveal its decision.
But after some discussions about evidence and witness statements, the panel decided to lengthen the time and indicated it would deliver its findings on February 19.
This deadline has again been moved.
In a minute released last week, panel chairwoman Clare Leniham said the panel had suspended the hearing from December 23 to allow Contact Energy time to respond to evidence by expert witnesses employed by the hearing panel. It had received five comments from expert witnesses on issues from planning to ecology.
Contact Energy will have until this Friday to provide a response to all the material.
Also on Friday, Contact Energy would request the processing of the application to resume.
The updated due date for the panel’s decision on the application would shift to March 12. Ms Leniham said Contact then had three remaining days it could use to ask for a further suspension, which would require a decision by March 17.
The fast-track legislation usually had a timetable of six months and an extra 50 working days if needed. Time was also lengthened by the Christmas-New Year period.
