Submissions galore to ‘ambitious plan’

The Northland Regional Council has received more than 2200 submissions to its “ambitious” longterm plan 2018-2028, to the delight of chairman Bill Shepherd.

A month-long period for public submissions closed on April 17, and he had been impressed by, and appreciative of, the level of community interest in its proposals.

“We have some big decisions to make, and we rely on community feedback like this to help us make them,” Cr Shepherd said.

“It’s great to get such a large amount of feedback, and the council will now be very carefully reading the reasoning people have provided when making their submissions; in a nutshell, we want to know why you think what you think.”

Prior to the public submission period Cr Shepherd described the LTP as ambitious, saying it reflected community calls for the council to do more to clean up water, protect native species and provide better flood protection.

While rates would have to rise to cover the costs of that work, initial indications were that there was strong support for the “big three” region-wide consultation topics of water, pests and flood infrastructure funding.

“Obviously, with more than 2200 submissions to process and the formal submission period only ending very recently, it will take another few days to accurately log and collate all these responses in detail,” he said.

The council had also hosted a series of Have Your Say days around the region, enabling people to give their thoughts directly to councillors, in place of a more formal hearing process, and some very useful feedback had been received covering the entire spectrum of opinions.

Attendance at the Have Your Say events ranged from one individual at Mangawhai to more than 60 in Kaitaia.

Cr Shepherd said once all submissions had been formally logged and recorded, staff would begin compiling a detailed deliberations report for councillors, who would also be provided with copies of all 2200-plus submissions.

Councillors would formally deliberate the LTP proposals, including all public feedback, in Whangarei on May 16. That meeting would be open to the public, and, “as always,” people would be very welcome to attend and observe the deliberation process, although they would not be able to comment or ask questions.