Chelsea Park Formation Given Green Light

April 1, 2008

Chelsea Park Formation Given Green Light By Parties

Joint statement made by Bernard Duignan, General Manager,
New Zealand Sugar Company (Chelsea Sugar) and Sir David Tompkins, Chairman, Chelsea Park Trust

The creation of the 36.7 hectare Chelsea Park on part of the historic Chelsea Estate in Birkenhead, North Shore City, has received a green light to proceed.

Key parties have signed an agreement on amendments to the North Shore City District Plan. This will enable a special Chelsea future use and conservation zone to be applied to the business-zoned land at the Chelsea Sugar Refinery, if refining ever ceases.

The agreement between Chelsea Sugar and its parent company, CSR limited, the Auckland Regional Council, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and North Shore City Council must be ratified by the Environment Court.

Ratification by the Environment Court is the last step in a series of actions that will enable ‘Chelsea Park’ to become a reality.

Chelsea Sugar is selling the property that will become Chelsea Park. It contains parkland, lakes, wetlands, regenerated forest, open spaces and historical houses.

Chelsea Sugar reached conditional agreement to sell the land for $20 million to the community based Chelsea Park Trust in 2005. The agreement will ensure the land is held in perpetuity as public reserve and parkland for the people of New Zealand, and will formalise the open access to the land that Chelsea Sugar has always allowed to the community.

The sale was conditional on Chelsea Sugar being able to continue to operate the refinery on a 24/7 basis, and on the rezoning of the remaining 14 hectares owned by the Company to permit suitable land use in the unlikely event that refining ceased.

The land acts as a buffer between the Chelsea Sugar refinery and its suburban neighbours, and has been owned by Chelsea Sugar since the early 1880s.

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