Regional Council Notes

Back in 1991 the Resource Management Act was passed by Parliament.  It was a significant piece of legislation that repealed 78 statutes and regulations to provide a single piece of legislation for the management of land, water, soil and air throughout New Zealand.

At the time it was deemed to be ground breaking and soundly welcomed by many, as the Town and Country Planning Act it replaced was not providing the planning framework the country needed and was in urgent need of review.

Over the years however, the RMA too has failed to keep abreast with changing times as government after government tinkered with it but avoided tackling its limitations head on.

It is now firmly in the headlights of the Big Blame Machine, being held responsible for the lack of development needed to keep up with growth, the burgeoning costs of that development and the extraordinary length of time it takes to get any big project off the ground.  

Now our current government has decided it will tackle the RMA head on and big changes are proposed.  No doubt many will consider that is a good thing especially when you see that it has been amended in nearly every year of its life and still doesn’t deliver what the country needs for sound and efficient development whilst protecting our natural environment.

The trouble is that it’s not exactly clear how the proposed replacement legislation will work.  We are told that it is likely that over one hundred district and regional plans will be rolled into 14 bigger regional plans but it’s not clear how those plans will be governed or just how generic they will be.

Where will our region’s boundaries lie?  Will the same planning rules apply over the whole area and be the same for Wellington City as for Masterton as for Martinborough?  Surely not but no one is giving us any assurances at the moment. How will we have a say about how we want our part of the world to look and feel?  How are these authorities to be funded?

And what about our local Councils?  If water supply, waste water and storm water are placed in large water authorities and planning becomes the domain of a regional planning authority, what is left for the local council; libraries, parks and anything else they can’t find a home for?

There is no doubt that Government ministers have instructed their officials to make these changes happen.  If communities want to have a say about the future of their local government and how it might look then they need to look out for opportunities to make their voices heard.

Change: coming to a council near you!