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0800 002 004 | www.nrc.govt.nz Putting Northland first

Have Say On Discussion Document, Public Urged

Northlanders are being urged to have their say on a discussion document that will help set the scene for a major rewrite of a local authority plan that will play a key role in the region’s future.

The Regional Policy Statement (RPS) is designed to ensure the region’s natural and physical resources are sustainably managed, making it one of Northland’s most important planning tools.

However, the current Northland Regional Council RPS is now 10 years old and work to develop it began even longer ago, in the early 1990s.

Kathryn Ross, the NRC’s Regional Policy Senior Programme Manager, says a review of the existing RPS had highlighted the many legal, social, environmental, economic and other changes that had occurred since the plan was written. These include:

• Regional issues which have taken on an added urgency, including infrastructural matters like sewerage, water quality and supply and climate change
• A much better understanding of the environment and the pressures on it
• Increased regional emphasis on the economic and social wellbeing of Northlanders
• The increasing recognition of the role of Maori across a range of issues
• Law changes which mean any new RPS will now have greater influence on Regional and District Plans.

Ms Ross says given the importance of a new RPS, Regional Councillors were keen to see as much input as possible from those it would affect.

To that end, the outgoing Council had asked at its last meeting that the public be given an extended period to comment on a discussion document that would help shape the content and approach of a draft RPS expected to be released in mid 2011.

That discussion document – which itself runs to more than 60 pages - was released for public comment today (subs: Fri 22 Oct) and people will be able to voice their opinions on it until Friday, 17 December.

“It’s important to stress that this discussion document is exactly that – a discussion document, not a draft of the new RPS itself,” Ms Ross says.

“Essentially we’re asking if the current balance between the use, development and protection of Northland’s natural and physical resources is right. Have we identified the right issues to address and range of options to pursue as we rewrite the RPS?“

Ms Ross says once the eight-week consultation period ends, NRC staff will collate the feedback and prepare a summary of it for release after the Christmas/New Year break.

She says the new RPS will help set the future direction of Northland at a crucial time, given the region is still emerging from the global recession, its political landscape is changing and there are increasing financial pressures and constraints on local authorities and the communities they serve.

She says outgoing Regional Councillors felt it was important that as well as the public being given plenty of time to voice their views, the actual rewrite of the RPS should take place under the watch of – and eventually be signed off by – the new Council elected this month.

More than 230 copies of the discussion document are being mailed out today to key stakeholders and from next week the document can be viewed at all Regional Council offices and public libraries. The discussion document and background information is also available from the Council’s website via: www.nrc.govt.nz/newRPS

Comments can be emailed to mailroom@nrc.govt.nz or posted to

New RPS
Northland Regional Council
Freepost 139690
Private Bag 9021
Whangarei Mail Centre

ENDS

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