No cultural harm in Otakiri bottling plant expansion

©On File

The Whakatāne District Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council has given Creswell New Zealand a green light to increase the water bottling capacity of a plant at Otakiri Springs near Whakatāne.

The company, which is wholly owned by Chinese bottled water supplier Nongfu Spring Co, was this week given approval under the Overseas Investment Act to buy the 6 hectare site around the spring.

The councils said they received submissions from Māori groups but were not persuaded the increased take will have a significantly adverse cultural effect.

Creswell can now upgrade the existing water bottling line to 10,000 bottles of water per hour and build two new high-speed bottling lines to up potential bottling capacity to 154,000 per hour.

It's expected trucking movements between the plant and the Port of Tauranga could increase from eight to 184 a day.

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