The Minister for the Environment has signed off a change to the Waikato Regional Plan which allows the latest version of Overseer to be used by Taupō farmers.

The change to Chapter 3.10 of the Waikato Regional Plan allows the use of the latest version of Overseer and any subsequent versions to model nitrogen leaching in the Taupō catchment. Version 5.4.3 previously required by the plan expires in December 2020.

A standard plan change process was unlikely to result in new operative rules being in place early enough, so a streamlined planning process was used instead for Plan Change 2: Taupō Overseer Version. It’s a simplified process directed by the Minister for the Environment who is then responsible for making the final decision, which can’t be appealed.

The council decided to use this process to ensure the plan change would become operative before December to enable farming consents and nitrogen trading contracts to be updated with new Overseer versions before the old version expires.

Notification of the proposed plan change was made in April. Since then, council staff have been working with the 83 affected farmers and consent holders to ensure nitrogen allocations are appropriately managed and accounted for.

Overseer is an important tool used by farmers to help protect the high water quality of Lake Taupō and its tributaries.

The approved plan change is due to be notified by way of a public notice in the Waikato Times, Taupō Times and Dominion Post on Friday, 2 October with the plan change taking effect from Monday, 12 October.

More details on plan change 2 and the streamlined planning process are available at waikatoregion.govt.nz/taupo-overseer.

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