Source: Rotokākahi Board of Control
14 August 2026
The High Court has found that Rotorua Lakes Council broke the law in the way it pushed ahead with the Tarawera sewerage scheme past Rotokākahi, the tapu ancestral lake of Tūhourangi and Tumatawera.
In a judgment delivered on 13 August 2026, the Court declared *two* Council decisions unlawful: the decision to proceed with the scheme, and the later decision to issue a section 87BB notice treating the works as a permitted activity that needed no resource consent.
“These are serious findings against the Council,” says Rotokākahi Board of Control chair Wally Lee. “We demand accountability and correction.”
The Court found the Council was required to engage directly with the Board before it proceeded — and did not. The Council knew Rotokākahi is tapu, and knew the Board had signalled “grave concern”, yet it never sought the Board’s views on what the scheme would mean for the lake. The Court found the Council proceeded on a wrong legal principle and failed to turn its mind to the protections that applied, including from the Council’s own planning documents for the Lakes A Zone which specified that a resource consent was required for scheme’s earthworks. The Council’s decision to proceed was unlawful.
On the section 87BB notice, the Court found the Council was wrong in law. Its conclusion that the cultural effects of the earthworks were “less than minor” was not one available on the evidence before it. The Council had measured the wrong thing — the brief duration of the earthworks rather than their cultural impact on a landscape our people regard as sacred.
The pipeline may now be in the ground, but completing the works does not erase the unlawful decisions that allowed them to proceed, nor the cultural, environmental and intergenerational consequences our people are left to carry. The Court granted the declarations so that the Council will “take notice and care” before undertaking future activities in the Lakes A Zone.
When members of our community stood in opposition to these works, the Council obtained a court injunction against them — pursued at ratepayers’ expense. The High Court has now found that what those protestors were standing against was the Council’s own unlawful conduct. The Board is proud to have stood alongside them, and we thank them for their courage and their steadfast support in defence of Rotokākahi.
“For us, this is not the end,” says Mr Lee. “The Board is considering the judgment and taking advice on further legal options. We are clear that unlawful decisions affecting Māori-owned whenua and a tapu ancestral landscape cannot be made without consequence.”
Te Whatanui Skipwith, of Protect Rotokākahi, says the ruling vindicates a struggle of more than two years. “The High Court has now confirmed that our concerns were justified. We stood then. We stand now. And we will continue to stand for Rotokākahi.”
Key points
The High Court declared *two* Rotorua Lakes Council decisions unlawful: the decision to proceed with the Tarawera sewerage scheme, and the decision to issue a section 87BB notice treating the works as a permitted activity.
The Court found the Council was required to engage directly with the Board before proceeding and failed to do so, despite knowing Rotokākahi is tapu and that the Board held “grave concern”.
The Court found the Council’s conclusion that cultural effects were “less than minor” was not available on the evidence, and that the Council applied the wrong legal test.
Rotokākahi is Māori freehold land, governed by the Rotokākahi Board of Control under the 1922 Te Arawa lakes settlement. It is tapu and of deep significance to Tūhourangi and Tumatawera.
Citation: *Rotokākahi Board of Control v Rotorua District Council* [2026] NZHC 2380 (13 August 2026).