Waikato farmland
Waikato Regional Council is asking the Environment Court for time to commission an economic impact study before ruling on a water quality plan change.
New Waikato Regional Council members Gary McGuire, Liz Stolwyk, Garry Reymer, and Keith Holmes are waiting to hear from the Environment Court. Photo Chris Gardner
A quartet of new regional councillors, including Waipā King Country Ward members Garry Reymer and Liz Stolwyk, took their concerns Plan Change One could cost the region $5 billion to the council’s first meeting last week resulting in a motion from second term councillor Ben Dunbar-Smith.
The plan change before the Environment Court includes a wide-sweeping set of rules for agricultural land use to improve freshwater quality in the Waikato and Waipā river catchments. It will apply to around 10,000 properties and 1.1 million hectares.
Council chief executive Chris McLay was directed to instruct legal counsel to ask the court for two to three months to enable a new economic impact assessment on the implementation of the plan change to be prepared.
Gary McGuire
The motion was seconded by Gary McGuire who was concerned farmers were being unfairly targeted.
The motion was passed following an impassioned plea from new councillor and immediate Waikato Federated Farmers past president Keith Holmes who said Waikato Regional Council had not followed the directions of the court to supply complete data on the economic impact on the region.
“Incomplete data, as a governor I cannot accept,” he said. “The anger and frustration of ratepayers in the Waikato catchment has been very, very high.”
There had been no governance over the plan change last triennium, Holmes claimed.
Tipa Mahuta
Fellow councillor Tipa Mahuta, who was also part of the previous council, took exception to his claim.
“You are part of the Waikato Regional Council today,” she said. “We need to fix this. I do have political oversight – I just elected a chair and a deputy. I am pro river, I am not anti-farmer.”
Dunbar-Smith told The News it would be “wonderful” to get an economic impact of the implementation of Plan Change One prior to the final decision being arrived at by the court.
Work on the economic impact had been done in 2016, but the figures were now nine years out of date.
Ben Dunbar-Smith
“It’s been a long, long process, for Plan Change One,” he said.
Work done by Holmes suggests the plan change could cost the region $5 billion.
“Is that true or is that not true, it would be wonderful to know,” Dunbar-Smith said.
Reymer, who campaigned on stopping the plan change, described Holmes’ approach as ballsy.
“He made some pretty strong statement,” he said. ”
Reymer was elated with the passing of the resolution at the council’s first meeting.
“I think it was huge, whether we achieve anything or not,” he said. “The message to management was pretty strong. The region is not happy and there’s a lot of angst out there.”
Stolwyk said councillors would establish a subcommittee to consider Plan Change One as they awaited a court decision.
“It’s a very difficult position that we have found ourselves in,” she said.
Holmes told The News after the meeting he was delighted “we got the resolution across the line”.
Councillors, who will soon attend a Plan Change One workshop, heard the court had already ordered 5500 instructions to council staff on the plan change.
