Plagued One Plan returns to court
Forcing the One Plan back to court will place farmers’ livelihoods in limbo, Horizons Regional Council fears.
Fish and Game and the Environmental Defence Society are taking the council to the Environment Court over what they claim are failures to enforce the plan.
However, the council says the ramifications of heading back to court could be drastic.
The One Plan manages the Manawatu-whanganui region’s quality of freshwater, air and land. It particularly affects those making discharges, such as district council sewage plants, or the amount of sediment and nitrogen that enters a waterway from a farm.
Horizons chairman Bruce Gordon said everyone affected by the One Plan would have to put plans on hold until they could be sure what the outcome of the proceedings would be.
‘‘Dairy farmers, in particular, are under severe pressure and the extra uncertainty going forward is going to be devastating.’’
Declaration proceedings are expected to be lodged in court this week, sending the plan – which took 10 years of consultation, legal battles and rewrites before being signed off in 2014 – back to the court.
Gordon said legal proceedings would be at ratepayers’ expense, when it could have been resolved with further discussion.
Federated Farmers Manawaturangitikei president James Stewart said the plan cost farmers and the council millions of dollars to refine and negotiate, in and out of court, for years.
‘‘The One Plan is not a rubberstamping exercise.
‘‘We’ve all been working very hard to meet new stringent requirements and ensure checks and balances are in place that must be met.’’
He urged all farmers to continue their ‘‘vital work’’, even amid uncertainty.
But critics of the plan have welcomed the legal action.
Environmental consultant from the Catalyst Group and former Horizons staffer Greg Carlyon said it was ‘‘absolutely fabulous’’.
He said Horizons had granted about 200 resource consents to individual farmers that were ‘‘grossly different’’ to what the One Plan recommended.
Ecologist Mike Joy said Horizons should be held to account.
Joy said there was no way the region should be farming so intensively, when the priority should be maintaining a clean and green environment for adding value to production.
It was unfortunate that Horizons would probably spend a large amount of ratepayers’ money trying to ‘‘defend the indefensible’’, rather than getting on with its job, he said.
Fish and Game Wellington regional manager Phil Teal said repeated attempts to get Horizons to properly implement the One Plan had failed.
‘‘It would have been better to work out a solution without having to go to court but, sadly, that hasn’t been possible.’’ The effects of the legal action were already being felt, just hours after the news broke.
Horizons chief executive Michael Mccartney told councillors on Wednesday the legal action would cast uncertainty over the council.
He said some consent applicants had already withdrawn their applications.
Horizons regulatory group manager Nic Peet said the council’s ability to enforce the plan was going to be ‘‘significantly compromised’’ now.
The council would be in a weaker position should it decline a consent application while the legal proceedings were underway, he said.
It would also likely mean the council would not meet its annual compliance targets due to demands on staff.
‘‘These type of procedures are always extremely large,’’ he said.
Environmental Defence Society chief executive Gary Taylor said it launched the action because it was concerned Horizons was not implementing its regional plan lawfully, particularly when dealing with resource consent applications for intensive farming and dairy conversions.
Taylor said there was ‘‘a gulf’’ between themselves and the council.