Close monitoring of odour in Bromley to continue

We have been closely monitoring compost-type odour in Bromley and we are pleased that Christchurch City Council (CCC) has progressed its procurement process to secure a new site for the organics processing plant (currently known as Living Earth in Bromley).

This follows the "in principle" decision made by CCC in April 2022 to relocate the facility.

Further details on the update provided to the council yesterday are available on its website.

In summary:

• CCC staff have undertaken an expression of interest (EOI) procurement process that commenced in August 2022
• As a result of the EOI, six potential sites and providers have been shortlisted

CCC staff provided the following timeline:

• Request for Proposal (RFP) process for the six candidates from April-August 2023
• Evaluation and negotiation completed by the end of October 2023
• New contract to be awarded in February 2024

A long wait for the Bromley community

General Manager of Regulatory Services, Judith Earl-Goulet, said it's an important milestone that CCC has shortlisted six candidates for the new site, but that there's still a long way to go.

"This is a good step, but this has been a long journey for the community, and it will be a while before the plant is operating on a new site.

“Determining a new suitable site and provider will take time and will present new challenges. For the community, it's a step in the right direction, but they still have a wait on their hands before they will see tangible results.

"We recognise that the Bromley community has been dealing with uncertainty for quite some time now. There's been significant and ongoing community interest in the odour issue in Bromley.

 "Frankly, it's taken far too long to get to this point. At least now the community has some certainty that CCC intends to relocate the organics processing plant.

“We will continue to work very closely with CCC as they undertake the rest of their procurement process to find a new site and provider for the organics processing plant.

“Going forward, we hope to see transparency and open communication from CCC – with the community and us."

New webpage shares odour-monitoring activity with the community

Earl-Goulet wants to reassure the community that our staff will continue to closely monitor and respond to odour reports in Bromley while the organics processing plant continues to operate on its current site.

"We recently published a new webpage to demonstrate the odour monitoring work that we undertake. It shows the latest information, including the number of reports we’ve received and any actions taken."

The community can also sign up to our email newsletter to be notified when the data is updated each month.

Ongoing enforcement action

Meanwhile, there is still ongoing enforcement action that we are undertaking in relation to the odour issue.  

Earl-Goulet said that we cannot comment on the nature of this enforcement action at this time. The parties involved are working hard to have further information for the community next week.

"Our key message to the Bromley community is that we will continue to closely monitor the odour reports in Bromley and take compliance action where appropriate."

Visit ecan.govt.nz/odourmonitoring to learn more about our odour-monitoring work in Bromley.

As always, we ask the community to report any odour issues to us via Smelt-it, or Snap Send Solve.