There’s no end of sight for Bromley residents putting up with a stinky compost plant

The redevelopment of Bromley’s Organics Processing Plant is now being put on hold while council investigate options for building a new facility instead.

The Bromley plant has been identified as one source of odour issues that has been troubling residents for years.

Environment Canterbury has issued the Council with an Abatement Notice.

Council Head of Three Waters and Waste Helen Beaumont said “long-term, this may be a better option than redeveloping the existing plant in Bromley.”

“However further work needs to be done to determine the feasibility of this so we are recommending that staff spend the next six months investigating this proposal, before bringing a report back to Council in March next year for their consideration.”

To address the odour issues, the Council had been planning a $21.5 million redevelopment of the plant to fully enclose it. However, the tender prices it received for redeveloping the Bromley plant have come in over budget.

Helen Beaumont said “it has become clear through the tender process that we cannot fully redevelop the plant and mitigate all the odour issues within the allocated budget. After a re-examination of the options, staff believe it is worthwhile investigating costs of building a new plant at a different site.”

In the interim staff are working through options for all compost to be removed from site following the fully enclosed tunnel composting phase of the process.

Ms Beaumont says if the Council makes the decision to build a new plant at a different site, the project is likely to take at least three years to complete.

Because of the commercial sensitivities around contract pricing, the Council will consider the future of the organics processing plant in the public excluded section of Thursday’s Council meeting. The decision reached at the meeting will be released to the public afterwards.