Early release of Policy decisions to help community
Early release of Policy decisions to help community
For immediate release: Monday 26 March
2012
Water quality, land use and the coastal environment provisions of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s proposed Regional Policy Statement (RPS) have been released early to help inform the community on policy direction.
The Regional Council believes this information will assist the community in making submissions to the draft Ten Year Plan 2012 – 2022, which opens for submission tomorrow.
The RPS provides high-level policy
direction for regional, district and city plans across the
region. The draft Ten Year Plan is being released on Tuesday
27 March for consultation with the community and
stakeholders.
Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor Raewyn
Bennett, who chaired the proposed RPS Hearing Committee,
said she believed it was the first time a Council had taken
the step of releasing this type of policy information early.
“While the RPS is very close to being finalised, we decided it was prudent to release this information early,” Councillor Bennett said.
“We’d like people who make submissions on the draft Ten Year Plan to be informed on the policy context of this significant spending.”
Councillor Bennett said the RPS Hearing Committee heard from 98 submitters for 17 days during September and October last year. A total of 183 submissions and 57 further submissions were received on the proposed RPS.
“This has been a thorough process and we have heard from a lot of people, which is great as it demonstrates the significant interest there is in the community about helping Council to get policy direction right,” Councillor Bennett said.
“The Regional Council has listened to the community’s concerns around the water quality of the region’s lakes, rivers and streams. Its decisions on the proposed Regional Policy Statement are intended to implement a framework for reducing nutrients entering catchments at risk, with a focus on Lake Rotorua in particular,” she said.
Councillor Bennett said that included in the RPS water quality and land use proposals were stronger references to the importance of soil as a resource, and that water quality was to be enhanced to meet the values associated with the water’s use and protection. Council’s decisions required a reduction in the levels of nutrients entering the region’s water bodies.
A variation to the Proposed RPS to make
further changes to the coastal environment provisions will
be considered in May before submissions are called for.
Those changes will see the landward boundary of the coastal
environment identified and areas of outstanding natural
character mapped.
“Releasing the coastal environment
provisions early will enable the variation to the proposed
RPS to give effect to the New Zealand Coastal Policy
Statement 2010 in light of the Council’s decisions,”
Councillor Bennett said.
Key changes to the coastal
environment provisions include the importance of coastal
access for all and how ‘appropriate’ coastal development
may be decided, more detail about mangrove management and a
new policy discouraging hard protection structures to reduce
coastal hazard risks. A new policy also provides for ports
and their infrastructure.
The Hearing Committee’s
recommendations on the rest of the Proposed RPS will be
presented to the Regional Council in June and the
Council’s decisions are expected to be notified in early
August.
Decisions on the Proposed RPS are subject to
appeal by submitters to the Environment Court. Submitters
have 30 days to appeal any decision.
The draft Ten Year Plan and Proposed RPS are available on the Regional Council website www.boprc.govt.nz. Ten Year Plan submissions opened on Tuesday, 27 March and close at 4pm on Friday, 27 April.
Ends