The recent Environment Court decisions in Tram Lease Limited v Auckland Council [2015] NZEnvC 133 and Tram Lease Limited v Auckland Transport [2015] NZEnvC 137 created some uncertainty in relation to the role of planning witnesses, as regards the planning witness' ability to opine on the "ultimate issue" in resource management cases before councils and the Environment Court.

A small group of senior practitioners have been liaising with Judge Newhook to produce a joint paper for the membership of the RMLA and NZPI that seeks to clarify the professional duties of planning witnesses in this context and to provide some good practice tips in that regard. You can access the paper here:

The Role of Expert Planning Witnesses