Environment Plan hearings in Marlborough to begin in August next year
Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Hearings to determine the shape of Marlborough's environmental policies for the next 20 years have been set down for August next year.
The Marlborough Environment Plan covers forestry, marine life, and farming in the Marlborough area and brings together two separate resource management plans and the region's policy statement.
An aquaculture working group will work through the marine chapter of the plan separately, after the industry raised concerns with the Marlborough District Council.
Councillor and hearings panel member Jamie Arbuckle said there was 'still a lot of water to go under the bridge'.
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About 1250 written submissions had been received on the plan, and further submissions supporting or opposing those submissions would be received in 2017.
Councillor Laressa Shenfield said the timeframe for the hearings was longer than anyone anticipated but it was necessary.
'The most important thing is to get it right. It's not something that we can speed up,' she said.
Council environmental policy manager Pere Hawes said the submissions needed to be summarised before the hearings began in August, and he did not know how long the hearings would take.
It depended on how many people wanted to speak in person.
A hearings panel was established in June, including four current councillors.
Former environment committee chairman Peter Jerram lost his place on the panel as he was no longer sitting on the council.
However, councillor Trevor Hook said Jerram he might be able to put his name forward as an independent commissioner.
The process for choosing three independent panel members had not been decided, and it was returning to the full council for discussion, Hook said. An iwi representative would also sit on the hearings panel.
Jerram said while he was happy to be a part of the panel again, it was up to the council how it dealt with the process in the New Year.
Councillor David Oddie said anyone coming in from the community would need to pass a Resource Management Act good decision-making course before they could sit on the panel.
Hawes said ideally the council wanted an iwi representative well-versed in matauranga Maori [Maori knowledge], but that would depend on their availability.
In the aquaculture chapter, the Marlborough Sounds would be considered on a 'bay-by-bay' basis by the group, comprised of councillors, members of the Marlborough Sounds Residents Association, an iwi representative, a trust representative and representatives from industry.
Hawes said he had no idea when hearings would begin for the aquaculture chapter. The aquaculture group would begin working on the chapter in February, and the timeline would depend on how many submissions were received.
Environmental group Marlborough Sounds Integrated Management Trust chairman Eric Jorgensen said the work was 'well overdue'.
'Having a Maori sector collaborative approach is a really good start,' Jorgensen said.