The Southland District Council has a statutory duty to protect ratepayers from unfunded environmental and health liabilities. The missing noise baseline monitoring from July 2026, combined with the absence of decommissioning security, e-waste tracking provisions, and the procedural concerns around non-notification, collectively justify immediate Section 128 review action.

The international precedents demonstrate that speculative data centre projects can fail, leaving communities with abandoned industrial sites, contamination liabilities, and remediation costs. A Section 128 review provides the appropriate mechanism to address financial, health, and environmental safeguard gaps before they crystallise into actual harm.