Supporters of St Mark’s school Pakuranga are fighting a fourth attempt to build a petrol station next to the school.
They have already held one protest on Pakuranga Road and a second is planned for today.
“People are important, stop BP,” hundreds of schoolchildren and adults chanted last Friday as they waved placards at traffic outside the school.
Proposals to build on the site were rejected in 1992 and 1998, and the school was preparing to fight another proposal in 2003 that did not go ahead.
School board chairman Sheyan Samarasinha says they are trying to raise awareness of BP Oil’s latest plan, because there was only limited public notification.
“How many times do we as a small community need to fight a major international company on the same issue?” he says.
Deputy chairwoman Marie-Louise McElwee says the school needs $30,000 to employ experts to oppose the resource consent, and at least another $60,000 if it ends up in the Environment Court. “I’m terrified of how much that is going to be,” she says.
St Mark’s cannot use its government funding to fight the proposal, she says.
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