The big guy

Neil Brown

RMA reform could save $149m/year

Jonathan Leask

Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown says it’ll be important to carefully examining the details of the new Resource Management Act (RMA) legislation.

The Government has revealed sweeping changes to the RMA with a plan to scrap the act completely and replace it with three new pieces of legislation.

That would see 100 RMA plans in force around the country reduced to just 15 regional ones, aimed at speeding up the time it takes to gain resource consent for housing and major infrastructure.

It’s also predicted to slash the cost of gaining consent by 19 per cent, or $149 million a year.

“Many parties, from councils to developers and from planners to environmentalists, have become very frustrated with the time, cost, uncertainty and impact on the environment of getting a resource consent under the RMA,” Brown said.

“So, in that light, (the) council welcomes the review.

“Whether the new regime will solve the problems of the RMA or not, and exactly how council and the community will be impacted is not clear, and in reality, only time will really tell and hopefully the claimed benefi ts will materialise.”

An Environment Canterbury spokesperson said it was too early to understand the impacts the changes would have on ECan’s work.

“Reform of the RMA is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and we are committed to playing our part in making reform a success.

“There is a lot to like about the new Natural and Built Environments Act and Strategic Planning Act, and we look forward to considering this important legislation in detail over the coming weeks.”

“Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air”

PHOTO DANIEL ALVEY

The big guy brings it in

Father Christmas arrived in town over the weekend making a much-anticipated stop at Ashburton’s annual Santa parade on Saturday.

East Street was lined with excited kids ready to meet their Christmas hero who brought up the rear of the parade which had about 20 fl oats in it.

Participants ranged from the Ashburton Pipe Band, to a number of clowns handing out lollies and chips to the kids.

Floats came in all shapes and sizes, from a Buzzy Bee, to larger B-double truck and trailers from Talley’s.

COUNCIL Compliance cost is ‘bureaucracy gone mad’

BY JONATHAN LEASK

Spending $20,000 to confi rm something you are already well aware of is “bureaucracy gone mad”, Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown says.

Audit NZ has advised the Ashburton District Council that any statements made in its annual report concerning drinking water compliance need to be independently validated by a qualifi ed external party.

That means they are facing an estimated $20,000 cost to confi rm that none of its schemes at present are bacteriological and protozoal compliant.

“We know we don’t comply. We know that,” Brown said.

“But the auditor wants someone to come in and do a report to tell us that we don’t comply. It will cost us upwards of $20,000, and then we’ll both agree we don’t comply. It’s a waste of $20,000.”

Chief executive, Hamish Riach, explained that the issue is the independent verifi cation of the testing regime and avoiding the annual report being red-fl agged.

“While I agree it’s madness, and we agree that getting the independent assessment just to say we don’t comply feels wasteful, we have taken a view that having a qualifi ed audit report based on our non-compliance of Three Waters is not a particularly desirable place for the council to be,” Riach said.

It is money that would have been better spent towards the planned works to make the schemes compliant, which has been budgeted for, Brown said.

“It’s a priority so that we do comply. We budgeted for it, let’s get it done,” Brown said.

Riach said it was not that simple.

“We simply can’t do everything we want to do with the resources we have available.”

He said Ashburton and councils across the country were struggling with balancing their business as usual and work for the Government reforms.

The council has budgeted $3.2 million for the Ashburton supply and $324,000 in Rakaia to install UV disinfection equipment in the next two years.

Works are also budgeted for Dromore, Fairton, Hinds, Chertsey, and Mayfi eld.

“Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air”