Regional councillors are mixed in their response to the Government's intervention ahead of a vote on its Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP).

On Tuesday night the Government made an amendment to the Resource Management Act Amendment Bill, restricting councils’ ability to notify freshwater plans before the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management is replaced.

The intervention forced the Otago Regional Council (ORC) to axe a vote on its Land and Water Regional Plan scheduled for yesterday. 

As a result, the regional council may now miss out on early involvement in the new national policy statement for Fresh Water Management previously offered by Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds.

Dunstan ward councillor Gary Kelliher said he understood the offer for the regional council to be involved in initial planning was only on the table if it had paused its Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP) last week.

Following a recent closed door meeting with councillors and Ministers Simmonds and Todd McClay, it had become clear to the Government there was still a 7-5 split from the regional council in support of the LWRP being notified.

Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds had met with Otago Regional councillors recently. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

“The Government had handed the entire olive tree to ORC and seven councillors said no thanks. So the government, I guess had no option but to change the law and they did,'' Cr Kelliher said.

“I hope the seven councillors are proud of themselves. Their determined ideological direction did Otago out of the deal offered to pause and then have specific involvement for Otago in the preparation of the new NPS-FM.’'

Fellow Dunstan ward councillor Cr Alexa Forbes - one of the seven regional councillors in support of notifying the plan - was strong in her criticism of the Government’s actions.

"By not being permitted to notify this plan today, we have been prevented from playing our part in our democracy and our future,’’ she said.

The Government’s actions, “or lack of it’’ risked ‘’our freshwater, our environment and our future economic prosperity’’ as well as local democracy, Cr Forbes said.

“We have heard loud and clear from government, “do as I recommend, or suffer the consequence of our force’’.

“And it’s not just us, we’re not special, we’re just first.

"Sixteen regional councils in New Zealand trying to bring in plans will be watching, horrified, at this overreach. So much for localism.''

The region's prosperity was “entirely reliant’’ on the health of our freshwater and our environment, and as such it was not okay there were still rivers with no legislated minimum flow 30 years after the Resource Management Act was introduced, she said.

“We’ve heard a minister discuss the state of a river that runs through one of the world’s oldest and most heavily populated industrial cities in the same breath as she talks about our rivers, lakes and streams. 

‘’The Seine with its high E.coli levels and other pollutants in the same breath as the mighty Mata Au (Clutha). There’s something seriously wrong with that picture.” 

Cr Kelliher believed the new legislation was better than having to pause the plan, “but not as good as it could be to have specific Otago involvement, which I assume will now be off the table, thanks to the seven still being determined to notify,’’ he said.

“But if that plan had been notified it would have had immediate legal effect from notification date and before all of the changes that were needed through the submission process. So the Government had to act I think.”

He said at least now the region’s economy and its environment could be factored together in a revised plan that provided for both when the new national policy statement for Fresh Water Management was in place. 

“And ratepayers and stakeholders can focus on Christmas rather than having to think about submitting on the incredibly poorly conceived plan just hopefully stymied, and the millions that likely have been saved.”

Dunstan ward Councillor Michael Laws said he was delighted the Government had stepped in - “some much needed sanity has been restored to the process.”

He believed the consultation process for the draft Land and Water Regional Plan was “shambolic” and did not properly convey the costs to individuals or communities of the plan.

He said the Government had no option but to intervene as a result.

“And to the claim that localism has been somehow denied: the truth is the draft plan was constructed at the direct behest of the previous Labour government, and the previous Labour chair had actually approached a Labour minister to sack the ORC, if she lost a vote.”