Tuesday, 18 April 2017 13:55

Consent chaos in Horizons region

Written by 
Chaos again prevails over the future of resource consents in the Horizons Regional Council region. Chaos again prevails over the future of resource consents in the Horizons Regional Council region.

Chaos again prevails over the future of resource consents in the Horizons Regional Council region because of an Environment Court judgement on the implementation of its controversial One Plan.

The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) and Fish and Game (FAG) challenged Horizons’ implementation in the Environment Court and the court agreed, saying it was unlawful.

At this stage, 46 consent applications now being processed by the council have effectively been rejected because Horizons doesn’t have a plan to deal with them because of what the court has now ruled.

The council can now only say that the court’s decision does not apply retrospectively, meaning any previous consents are okay. But even this view is being questioned by EDS spokesman Gary Taylor, who says if the process of granting those consents wasn’t lawful it casts doubt on them. He says the council may need to look at this and other issues.

The court’s decision has taken Horizons by surprise; others aware of the issues are aghast at the decision and wonder whether a workable implementation process can be found that is legal and meets the needs of farmers, commercial growers and EDS and FAG.

Rural News understands Horizons now doesn’t know what to do. The council is asking people who have applied for consents to withdraw and be refunded their application fee.

The council is also telling farmers that any future consent lodged must be robust enough to meet the new standards, but it can’t say what these will be. In essence the consents process is paralysed and there is no obvious solution in sight.

There also appears to be problems with the use of Overseer, which could affect consents for commercial growers in Horowhenua.

In addition, the Environment Court seems to be saying it is not interested in practicality or reasonableness and has held that consents should be made on numbers alone.

Horizons may reasonably conclude that the court seems to have little interest in whether a farmer will go bankrupt if a consent application is declined. The court says in its judgement that the economic circumstances of an individual should not be a consideration.

“That is not a reason to manipulate or pervert plan implementation” the court says.

More like this

'Clip board' council out of touch

Commercial grower Bruce Rollison says he's spending a lot of time dealing with existing regulations and planning to deal with new ones that keep appearing.

Cut the red tape - Feds

Federated Farmers says it is pleased that Horizons Regional Council (Manawatu-Whanganui) has recognised the need to get work done on-farm by empowering them to fix infrastructure without getting consents.

Certainty on the 'Horizons'?

After more than a decade of at times acrimonious wrangling, it seems that peace is breaking out on how to manage the environment in the Manawatu, Whanganui and Rangitikei districts.

Let there be peace in the hills and valleys

After more than a decade of at times acrimonious wrangling, it seems that peace is breaking out on how to manage the environment in the Manawatu, Whanganui and Rangitikei districts.

Featured

Massey Research Field Day attracts huge interest

More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.

National

Winter grazing warning

Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.

ANZ defends farm lending rates

The country's largest lender to the agriculture sector says it's not favouring home loans over farm and business lending.

Machinery & Products

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo…

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter