Friday 24 May, 2019
Deadline extended for further submissions on Proposed Waikato District Plan
Waikato District Council has extended the deadline for making a ‘further submission’ on the Proposed Waikato District
Plan (Stage 1) while it reviews and corrects omissions from the Summary of Submissions it issued last month.
The Council has discovered that a handful of the nearly 1,000 submissions were not published in its Summary of
Submissions for its community to consider in order to make a ‘further submission’, and several other submission
summaries needed minor corrections.
The Council says it is extending the original deadline of Monday 27 May and it will announce a new closing date for
further submissions once it is certain it has corrected and published all omissions.
Waikato District Council Chief Executive Gavin Ion says, “We’ve apologised to the submitters involved, we’ve notified
all other submitters, we’ve announced it on our website where anyone making a further submission will see it, and so
we’re now making sure that our whole community is aware that they have extra time to make a further submission.”
“Once we have a new timeframe we will apply it to all further submissions to give our community a fair chance to look at
all the original submissions together. This will also serve to provide extra time for the community to consider what
might be important to them,” says Mr Ion.
A further submission is an opportunity to support or oppose other people’s submissions on the Proposed District Plan, to
comment on how a submission may impact you, and to have your views considered by the Hearings Panel along with the
original submission.
The District Plan sets the rules for how the district’s land can be used, developed and subdivided and it is reviewed
every 10 years.
Mr Ion says, “The Plan gives guidance as to what you can do with your land, for example, whether you can subdivide your
property and where you can site a building. It also protects our cultural heritage and our environment by identifying
Maaori sites of significance, heritage buildings and significant natural areas.”
The Council encourages anyone making a further submission to do it online through the Council website
www.waikatodistrict.govt.nz, but hard copies of the submission forms are also available from all Council offices and
libraries, or you can phone 0800 492 452 to request one. You do not need to have made an original submission to make a
further submission.
ENDS