{"id":547971,"date":"2026-07-28T14:29:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/547971\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T14:29:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T14:29:36","slug":"environment-court-orders-removal-of-shipping-containers-from-wellington-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/547971\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment Court orders removal of shipping containers from Wellington property"},"content":{"rendered":"

A property owner who refused to remove eight shipping containers stacked on a property in the heart of Wellington says they are no different to cars or pot plants.<\/p>\n

However, the Environment Court has stepped in and told the owner to clear the containers within 30 days, or apply for a resource consent to keep them there.<\/p>\n

In November 2024, the Wellington City Council received a complaint about two shipping containers stacked vertically at 218 Victoria St, Te Aro, Wellington.<\/p>\n

Another complaint was received in May 2025 after the number of containers had increased to six.<\/p>\n

The address is registered to a company known as 2468 Property, owned by Benjamin Dillon Spencer. The council engaged with Spencer who said the containers were not buildings and were used for storage.<\/p>\n

Spencer declined several requests for meetings with the council and emailed them advising he did not give permission to enter or take photographs from neighbouring properties.<\/p>\n

The council issued an abatement notice in June 2025 requiring the company to remove all containers before August 29, which Spencer did not appeal or comply with.<\/p>\n

Further correspondence was sent from the council over the following months. Spencer advised he would not remove the six containers and instead added two more.<\/p>\n

The council filed an application with the Environment Court seeking an enforcement order, which went to a hearing on July 7 before Judge Lauren Semple, who recently released her decision.<\/p>\n

At the hearing, Spencer said he did not need a resource consent and other businesses in neighbouring properties also had containers on their properties.<\/p>\n

“He likened the containers being on site to a motor vehicle or a pot plant, simply something one owns that is placed on the property but certainly not a building as defined in the plan,” the decision said.<\/p>\n

The council’s evidence was the containers covered more than 20 percent of the site and did not meet the permitted activity for the area.<\/p>\n

The court determined the containers met the definition of a building and therefore required a resource consent.<\/p>\n

“I am satisfied that the continued placement of the containers on the property contravenes a rule in the plan and their removal is appropriate, unless a resource consent is obtained to regularise their placement,” Judge Semple said.<\/p>\n

2468 property was directed to comply with the order within 30 days.<\/p>\n

Wellington City Council told NZME they had no comment to make at the moment.<\/p>\n

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Open Justice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A property owner who refused to remove eight shipping containers stacked on a property in the heart of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-547971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}