Firm behind plans for gondola attraction fined for role in landslip

 Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

The company behind a gondola lift and other leisure attractions planned for south Wales said it took its responsibility to the environment very seriously after being fined for its part in a landslip in New Zealand.

Skyline Enterprises Ltd is working through planning conditions as part of the approval for the visitor attraction overlooking Swansea it received from the council last year. They include one about slope stability.

Last month the company was fined in Christchurch, New Zealand, after pleading guilty to a charge along with two other companies to an offence under the country’s Resource Management Act.

The three companies were responsible for unlawfully discharging sediment and construction spoil onto land which overlooked a community in Queenstown, South Island, between March and September 2023. During very heavy rainfall one night in September of that year a significant quantity of this material slid down and onto a street, leading to the evacuation of 41 residents.

In sentencing comments at Christchurch District Court the judge said: “The physics of having an unstable pile of construction spoil and sediment on the brow of a steep slope then adding heavy rainfall is easy to contemplate.”

The material had been excavated on behalf of Skyline Enterprises as part of a major upgrade of its Queenstown gondola attraction. It was stored outside the area consented for this purpose and lacked sediment and erosion controls.

The judge said the three defendants had made a choice “in favour of commercial expediency”. He said Skyline Enterprises’s culpability was “very careless” rather than reckless and less so “by some margin” compared to the contractor it had commissioned. The third company – sub-contracted by the contractor – was deemed to be “very careless”.

The hearing heard that Skyline Enterprises got on with remediation work on a “no expenses spared” basis, that it offered sincere apologies for the distress caused to the community, and that it had operated in Queenstown for 60 years with an otherwise unblemished environmental record.

The judge imposed a fine on the company totalling 271,000 New Zealand dollars. This was less than the one handed to the contractor and more than the one imposed on the sub-contractor.

Swansea councillor Stuart Rice said he has written to the council’s planning department and asked it to ensure the planning condition relating to slope stability at Kilvey Hill was fully addressed in view of last month’s sentencing.

Slope stability

The slope stability report commissioned by Skyline Enterprises concluded that the development land at Kilvey Hill was safe and stable but that further checks would take place as observations at this stage of the project were limited.

Skyline Enterprises said Kilvey Hill was “notably different” to Queenstown, with “expert investigation and reporting assessing that the likelihood of landslips as low”.

It said: “Skyline takes its responsibility to its neighbours, the community and the environment very seriously. We are working with various experts and consultants to ensure proper consideration is given to ecological requirements, water management and land stabilisation during construction and that our construction plans are developed to comply with all Swansea Council requirements and other legislation.”

It safety was a key priority, and that preparatory works starting shortly would focus on tree clearance along the gondola route and wider site area, removal of invasive rhododendron and the safe removal of diseased trees within the site boundary. Construction work, it said, was expected to begin in the first half of 2026.

Heavy rainfall

Referring to the case in New Zealand, it described the heavy rainfall on the night in September 2023 as unexpected and very significant, causing flooding and landslides across the Queenstown region.

“Skyline responded immediately and worked tirelessly in association with the local council to remediate the slope below the site,” it said. “Skyline accepts accountability for its role in the events and is committed to its environmental obligations, and to ensuring this doesn’t happen again.”