Golfers opposing Auckland Council's bid to slash the city's Chamberlain Park course in half have won their first battle.
Chamberlain Park Golf Course. Photo: Google Maps
The council has withdrawn its resource consent, which would have green lit the first stage of the project to turn parts of the course into a public park.
In just a few weeks, the diggers were meant to beging their work at the popular public course.
The council's u-turn follows an application for a judicial review by the group Save Chamberlain Park, which criticised the council's decision to grant itself a resource consent without public consultation.
The council said it would apply for a new resource consent and indicated it still wants to go ahead with the project.
Save Chamberlain Park chairman Geoff Senescall welcomed the decision and was hopeful a solution could be negotiated.
"This decision to back down not only vindicates our decision to legally challenge the council, it also raises serious questions around the robustness of the processes that saw the council grant itself a non-notified resource consent," he said.
"This is an important victory against a well-resourced council that chose to ignore the legitimate interests of Aucklanders who rely on Chamberlain Park for their sport and recreation."
The council's head of investigation and design, Rob Cairns, said the judicial review application had identified some aspects of its plans that should have been considered in more detail.
"We will take this on board and work with the local board on how we can refine and resubmit a new consent application," Mr Cairns said.
"This does not affect the master plan for the future development of Chamberlain Park, which still stands."