Growing calls to pollution hotline show changing attitudes
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council received 20% more calls to its Pollution Hotline over the past year, highlighting the community’s growing dissatisfaction with people who disrespect the environment.
1,095 calls were made to
the Pollution Hotline in 2017-18, compared with 915 in
2016-17. Of these 696 were for air complaints and 224 for
surface water complaints.
The 92 infringement notices
issued in 2017-18 were a 67% increase on the previous year.
46 abatement notices were issued. The number of prosecutions
remained the same at five.
Councillor Neil Kirton
called it a very useful report.
“It’s great to see
honest commentary in the report, with continuing focus on
the compliance operations of our councils, sectors and
industry. Standards must be met and the performance of our
local authorities should lead the way,” says Cr Neil
Kirton.
“I congratulate the dairy industry on the growing number of gold, silver and bronze certificates identified in our annual Dairy Excellence Awards, across the 79 dairy farm operations in Hawkes’ Bay,” says Cr Paul Bailey.
The Environment and Services Committee of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council today received the Compliance 2017-18 Annual Report. A public-friendly summary of the report will be released to accompany the Annual Report when the Regional Council meet on 26 September.
Call the Regional Council Pollution Hotline on 0800 108 838, 24 hours/ 365 days a year, to report an environmental issue.