ECan Chairperson Cleared To Return After Investigation

Thursday, 18 July 2024, 7:05 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

Environment Canterbury chairperson Peter Scott won't say whether he’ll return to the top job, after being issued a formal warning for illegal farming practices.

An independent investigation has led to Scott being issued a formal warning, but cleared to return to the chairperson’s role.

Scott voluntarily stood down as chairperson on May 3 while an independent investigation looked into claims he made during a radio interview that he was "operating illegally" on a South Canterbury farm.

Scott said yesterday he was pleased the investigation was over.

While he was free to return as chairperson at the regional council, Scott wanted to discuss that, and the investigation, with the other councillors first.

He declined to comment further about the investigation, and said he would not return as chairperson until he spoke to other councillors when they assemble for a council meeting on Wednesday.

“They haven’t had an opportunity to be involved in any of the discussion yet because of the nature of it and they are as interested as anyone. I need to talk to them.”

During the interview with Newstalk ZB in April, Scott discussed how ECan had put in new procedures to manage a backlog of consent applications and detailed how two of his consent applications for irrigation had been delayed by another government agency for six years.

The issue was that ECan found a parcel of land on Scott’s farm, which he has since sold, was potentially Crown land, but he continued to farm it.

“I’m carrying on and ignoring the fact that I haven’t got one so I’m actually operating illegally, and I’m the chairman of Environment Canterbury,” he said in the interview.

ECan chief executive Dr Stefanie Rixecker initiated an independent investigation into the farm’s irrigation and land use consents, at a cost of $66,000.

The investigation was carried out by a qualified and experienced Resource Management Act compliance officer from a North Island regional council, who passed their recommendation to ECan’s regulatory enforcement decision panel to determine the appropriate actions when it met on July 12.

The verdict was to issue formal warnings to Scott and two other parties.

“Given the time that had elapsed since the council first had information on the activities (through the application for a land use consent in October 2022), along with the low level of environmental impact, the panel determined it did not meet the threshold for prosecution,” Rixecker said.

The panel found the seriousness of the non-compliance activity to be at the lower end of the spectrum, meaning a warning was appropriate, she said.

Scott's actions had previously been described as hypocritical by Mid Canterbury farmer Daryl Butterick. Greenstreet farmers watched their stream run dry as they waited for approval to divert water into it while Scott was knowingly breaching the rules, Butterick said at the time.

When asked if he felt he had been in the wrong, Scott declined to comment.

In a statement to RNZ this week, Scott said the farm was in his family for nearly 70 years.

“We always took great care to ensure we operated within the law, so this delay was immensely frustrating.

“It was a good example of how consent delays are not always clear cut which is why I mentioned it on radio.

"The subsequent investigation has been time consuming and costly, but I have respected the process and co-operated fully."

Scott said the necessary land use consent for the property was being processed.

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