The Tauranga funeral home facing fines of as much as $600,000 for leaving neighbouring homes “enveloped by smoke and ashes of dead bodies” was first complained about in 2014, but council took no action.

Further details of the offending that landed Legacy Funeral Homes before the Environment Court can now be revealed after Stuff obtained both the summary of facts, and an affidavit by Legacy general manager Kiri Maree​ Randall.

Legacy appeared on Monday at the Environment Court in Tauranga, after earlier pleading guilty to representative charges under the Resource Management Act over their crematorium smoke discharges.

They also pleaded guilty to representative charges of contravening abatement notices.

At Monday’s hearing neighbour Matt Bear said “smoke and particle matter of dead bodies filled our home on many occasions”.

“Personally enveloped by smoke and ashes of dead bodies ... The smoke and ash from these dead bodies invaded my lungs, my body. I’m still trying to accept this.”

According to the summary of facts, complaints about “smoke and odour discharges” were made to Bay of Plenty Regional Council by neighbours in February, April, June and October of 2014.

”Some of these complaints were supported by videos and photographs showing smoke discharging from the crematorium stack.”

However, “no enforcement action was taken by the regional council”.

The summary also revealed Legacy chose the model of cremator “due to its proven characteristics of no smoke emissions when operated to the supplier’s specifications”.

Photo taken from a video filmed by neighbour Matt Bear of the April 4, 2022 discharge. Photo: Supplied/Stuff.

Details of further complainants were also revealed, including Luke Richards who worked nearby.

“The smoke makes you feel pretty yucky really – it’s not just smoke from a fire you know, it’s somebody”.

Another neighbour, Glenn Wilson, said the smoke caused headaches that would take hours to go away.

“It smells toxic like nothing you’ve ever smelt before,” he said.

The summary also noted the smoke contained contaminants that could “cause a range of health problems”.

“Inhalation of black carbon has been associated with asthma and other respiratory problems, low birth rates, heart attacks and lung cancer.”

In Randall’s affidavit for Legacy, she said the period of issues coincided with “when Covid-19 was at its peak in New Zealand”.

“This placed us under greater pressure to keep on working as we were being warned that the large number of deaths that were expected would mean that other providers would not be able to cope.”

She also said they had to conduct regular “sealed” cremations, and this “limited our control over what was being burnt”.

“Throughout this time we were unable to clearly identify a single issue that was responsible for these issues and had to operate under the greater restrictions and pressure of Covid-19,” she said.

“While in retrospect, our decision to continue operating was the wrong one, it was very difficult to see this at the time.”

Environment Court Judges David Kirkpatrick’s reserved decision is expected within a few days.

- Benn Bathgate/Stuff.