A community group is taking the Canterbury Regional Council to court over its inaction in removing a massive pile of tyres near Amberley.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Accountability Action wants the council or the government to front up funds to clean it up.
Meanwhile, a 63-year-old man is due to appear in court tomorrow charged with setting fire to the tyres on Friday - a fire that's still burning.
As the mountain of tyres on an Amberley property continued to smoulder - a community group plans to get rid of the dangerous eye-sore.
After a two-year battle to get the 150,000 tyres removed - Accountability Action's director Bruce Gledhill is fed up.
A man has been charged with setting fire to the tyres Photo: Supplied / Hurunui District Council
He planned on going to the Environmental Court to file a suit against Canterbury's regional council, also known as Environment Canterbury (ECan) for "failing the community in their mismanagement over the stockpile, which is now the Amberley fire".
He blamed the organisation for not handling the situation properly.
"ECan have mucked around for so long. Not using their powers and have ignored the support of the Environment Court once before. They negotiated an agreement with the people who stockpile the tyres and failed to see it through.
"But, it wasn't a court order in terms clearing the site, it was an agreement. The people who negotiated it were very, very cleaver and I think ECan were naive."
Council spokesperson, Andrew Arps, said it had been working with all parties to get the tyres removed for the past two years.
This included an application to the Ministry for the Environment's Waste Minimisation Fund.
"The reality is, it all takes time. There are a number of components to bring that in together. It's probably going to take close to a million dollars to resolve."
The tyre-pile was at risk of contaminating the town's water supply, Accountability Action spokeswoman Julia McLean said.
"We are calling for emergency funds to be released by ECan or the Crown. Stop holding the community at ransom for an issue that's been going on for four years."
Last year, an Amberley homeowner was sentenced to nine months' supervision by the Christchurch District Court after admitting he set fire to the pile in February 2018.
And thick black smoke once again blanketed the skies this Friday following another arson attack.
It didn't have to be this way, Gledhill said.
"It's a fiasco, everything is going to have to be contained and mixed with cement maybe before it's picked up."
Fire and Emergency would be working with the council to clean up the burnt tyre remnants.
The lessee of the land, Michael Le Roy, has been contacted for comment.
