The fast track process has moved into the slower lane.
A decision on the proposed multimillion-dollar wind farm planned for Slopedown, near Wyndham, will not now be made until March.
The Contact Energy proposal was accepted into 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 on 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 it would have.
The panel indicated it would deliver its findings on February 19.
This deadline will not now be met.
In a minute released last week by panel chairwoman Clare Leniham, she said the panel suspended the hearing from December 23 to give 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 will have until this Friday to provide a response to all the material.
The updated due date for the panel’s decision on the application now shifts to March 12.
Ms Leniham said Contact Energy 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, which was not counted as working days.
