Environment Southland has ruled out revisiting public notification of a remaining Datagrid wetland consent application, despite concerns over Chorus withdrawing from the proposed Tasman Ring Network.

In a letter to Stop Data Centres NZ dated 29 October, Environment Southland general manager strategy and regulation Hayley Fitchett said the information supplied by the group did not warrant revisiting existing resource consents or affect the notification decision.

“The Council has made its decision on notification of APP-20262269 and cannot lawfully revisit that decision.”

Stop Data Centres NZ had asked whether the proposed development still qualified as “specified infrastructure” following Chorus’ withdrawal and questions about the cable’s funding.

The group also asked whether those developments amounted to new information that should be considered before the remaining application was decided, including whether public notification was appropriate.

Fitchett said the decision-maker would still need to be satisfied the data centre qualified as specified infrastructure before granting or declining the application under freshwater regulations.

That assessment could take account of whether the cable and data centre would provide a telecommunications network following the withdrawal of the Chorus agreement.

“However the proposal is clearly intended to form part of a telecommunications network, and it is reasonable to assume that other connections with such a network will be made upon completion of the development,” she said.

Fitchett said the cable and data centre development would meet the definition both as regionally significant infrastructure and as infrastructure delivering a service operated by a lifeline utility.

The letter did not confirm the cable would be built or that its funding was secured. Its stated assumption concerned future connections to a telecommunications network once the development was completed.

Stop Data Centres NZ said Chorus ended its exclusive memorandum of understanding with Datagrid in August 2025 because the project did not meet its investment criteria.

The group also pointed to public reporting that cable funding had so far been limited to a marine survey.

It said the original legal opinion supporting the specified-infrastructure pathway treated the data centre and cable as an interdependent package and was prepared while the Chorus arrangement remained in place.

The council’s letter maintained its position on the project’s infrastructure status, while leaving the final assessment to the decision-maker considering the outstanding application.