West Coast One Plan Can't Be Ditched - Government

Friday, 10 October 2025, 4:46 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

The Government has confirmed that the West Coast’s new district plan can't be ditched - despite campaign promises by some council candidates. 

Regional Councillor Allan Birchfield has said if his Reform Ticket candidates gain seats in Saturday’s local government elections, he will work to have the Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) set aside, including rules for new significant natural areas (SNAs) on private land. 

But the Ministry for the Environment which monitors the way councils implement the Resource Management Act, says that's not possible. 

“The plan cannot be set aside because preparing district and regional plans to manage activities is a statutory requirement that forms part of regional and district council functions …under the Resource Management Act,” a Ministry spokesperson told LDR. 

The plan has taken six years and $8 million to produce and came about after a ratepayer request to the Local Government Commission in 2015 for council reorganisation on the West Coast. 

The TTPP committee, made up of councils and iwi, was set up to prepare and approve the plan, the spokesperson said. 

“An Order in Council [i.e. Cabinet directive] detailing the formal reorganisation on the West Coast was signed by the Governor General … and came into force on 19 July 2019 .” 

The order had the force of law, which meant the TTPP committee was legally required to prepare the plan. 

The West Coast Regional Council’s chief executive Darryl Lew, said the Ministry statement confirmed his view that there was no way in law to set the plan aside. 

“For a start, the Regional Council has no plan to do what Cr Birchfield is proclaiming he would do: the governance authority lies with the TTPP committee. “ 

And even if a new TTPP committee formed after the elections and wanted to ‘stop’ the plan, it could not, Mr Lew said.

“There is the Order in Council, and the current TTPP committee has adopted the recommendations of independent Commissioners and agreed to notify it. 

“Mr Lew would not be drawn on whether it was responsible to promise voters things that could not be delivered. 

“I can only advise anyone on what the position is in law.” 

Mr Birchfield has also claimed the West Coast plan should have been halted last year, when the Government told councils to stop wasting time and money on plan changes in advance of the new planning system coming into force with RMA reforms. 

But the TTPP fell outside of the Government’s directive issued by the Minister for RMA reforms, Chris Bishop, in July this year. 

“Councils will be required to withdraw plan reviews and changes that have not started hearings, as soon as possible…”, the Minister’s statement said at the time. 

The lengthy TTPP hearings had already ended, in March. Cr Birchfield says the Ministry's statement is a bitter pill to swallow.

"It may be the law, but I don't believe that makes it right. This plan has been hijacked by the bureaucrats; and it's been bulldozed through before the elections." 

The TTPP is the first regional plan of its kind, covering land use policies and rules for all three West Coast district councils.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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