Heavy consents burden ahead
Environment Southland is expecting a large increase in the number of resource consents it will process this year and will need to continue to use consultants and possibly hire more staff to deal with the workload.
The regional council expects the Government’s Essential Freshwater Package could lead to an increase of more than 1000 consents, and perhaps as many as 1200, on top of the consents it already processes under its proposed Water and Land Plan.
The council has been using consultants to process some consent applications but was unable to provide details of the costs for the consultants’ work yet.
At a regulatory committee meeting in November 2019, the increase in the number of consents being processed, and the future workload, was discussed.
Council general manager policy, planning and regulatory services Vin Smith told councillors that for intensive winter grazing the consents team was expecting an estimated 350 consents under the Proposed Water and Land Plan, and an estimated 1000-1200 consents under the
Essential Fresh Water Package.
Smith said on Monday that the council was currently reviewing its consents resourcing needs as part of the Long-term Plan process, and would consider the likely implications on staff resourcing from these areas to ensure that it continued to provide a timely and professional service to the community.
‘‘Council also employs consultants to provide specialist expertise and to manage work flow. The majority of those costs are recovered from the applicant.’’
He said the consents team had been processing consents under the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan since 2016.
‘‘Many activities are also sought to be controlled by central government’s Essential Freshwater package, such as intensive winter grazing. Once we know what the final version of the Essential Freshwater package looks like, we will be able to finalise our resourcing and response.’’
The council had been closely monitoring the progress of the Freshwater package, Smith said.
It had sent a submission to the Government, and chairman Nicol Horrell spoke at a heated consultation meeting in Gore, imploring Agriculture Minister Damien
O’Connor to let Southland operate under one plan. Gore District predicted it may have to spend $60 million to meet its obligations under the package.
The Freshwater package, announced by the Government in September 2019, aims to improve freshwater quality in a generation, but it would fall to regional councils to enforce new rules.
The proposed Southland Water and Land Plan sought to address activities that were known to have a significant effect on water quality, such as land use intensification, urban discharges, winter grazing and stock access to waterways.