Deadline day is looming for the Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) contentious Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP).

On October 23, Councillors will vote whether to notify the plan, or consider a new option of delaying until the new national policy statement for freshwater management (NPS-FM) was underway.

Water Notices

At another extraordinary meeting late last week, the council shared the latest option from Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds, to pause its plan and instead become part of initial planning in the new Government framework.

The option is a huge change from the stance Minister Simmonds and others took on September 12 when ORC representatives met with them in Wellington.

Ministers restated their strong preference for the regional council not to notify its LWRP, and the new option of becoming involved in influencing policy direction, has been described as extending an olive branch.

The recent letter from the Minister following the Wellington meeting, proposed that ORC participate in targeted engagement on the review and replacement of the NPS-FM between October and early 2025. 

This would also provide ORC early access to the direction of the new NPS-FM, and allow that to be incorporated into the ORC draft plan (LWRP).

But the regional council would also have to delay notifying its own plan (LWRP) until at least early 2025, and up until now a majority 7-5 split have continuously voted to push on with it.

In her letter, Minister Simmonds said the Government understood there could be unintended consequences, particularly for water take and discharge consent holders if the ORC delayed its plan.

"The Government will work with you to make sure unintended consequences do not negatively impact resource users or unnecessarily burden ratepayers,” the letter stated.

Cr Gary Kelliher said the olive branch from the Ministers recognised that the ORC was quite advanced with its plan.

But he said the regional council was putting themselves at huge risk if they didn’t take up the offer, and pause all work on the LWRP immediately.

Some councillors were dubious about the offer and said they weren’t sure they could trust the Government to be true to its word.

Chair Gretchen Robertson said what she got from the meeting in Wellington was that they all needed to understand each other and have trust.

But Otago had significant issues that the council was trying to address through its LWRP, “and that is costly, and not getting it right is costly,” she said.

The council voted 7-5 to consider the Minister’s new option and adequately consider all of the advantages and disadvantages as part of the decision-making process at its October 23 meeting.