West Coast significant natural area hearings delayed

Hearings on the most controversial part of the West Coast's new district plan have been put back until November, as councils hope for confirmation that they no longer need to plan for significant natural areas, or SNAS.

Independent commissioners were set to hold hearings this month on the Ecosystems and Biodiversity chapter of the proposed Te Tai o Poutini plan (TTPP).

The chapter gives effect to RMA rules requiring councils to map and protect significant natural areas - usually stands of native trees - on private land.

But West Coast councils are hoping to avoid the unpopular and expensive job as the government embarks on urgent changes to resource management laws.

And the TTPP committee made up of council reps and iwi voted Wednesday to postpone the biodiversity hearings until 18 November.

Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson says it makes no sense to be writing rules for new SNAs when the government is saying it does not want them.

The government said in March it was suspending the obligations for councils to impose new SNAs, and they would be 'unwise to bother' wasting resources and effort implementing national direction requirements that might change.

But Gibson said that left TTPP committee in a quandary as to what criteria and rules on biodiversity should now be in the new plan.

"We need the government to direct us. The law hasn't changed yet but it's about to and the TTPP plan process has reached this critical stage for SNAs - what are we supposed to do?"

Of the three district councils on the West Coast, Mayor Gibson's is the only one that has been through the SNA process.

"We did this fifteen years ago, but under the current biodiversity rules, we'd have to create heaps more - Grey District people don't want this and we don't have the funds anyway."

Gibson moved that the TTPP committee ask the commissioners to postpone the August hearings, despite the potential consequences.

A minute from the commissioners, read to the meeting, warned that the change of date could prejudice parties to the hearing, lead to extra additional costs for councils and ultimately delay the release of the hearing panel's decisions.

"The panel's preference is to continue with the August hearing, given all parties have had advance notice…expert evidence has been arranged, and preparation of legal submissions will be underway.

"Principles of natural justice must be maintained."

Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine said he was not in favour of postponing the August hearings.

"I've researched the proposed Freshwater and Other Matters Amendment Bill, and it actually cuts over a lot of what we're talking about. It expressly excludes any SNAs already identified and it gives councils a three-year window for anything new, so it doesn't affect any SNAs in the proposed plan."

The TTPP gave councils a reasonable amount of time to identify new SNAs and the new criteria would almost certainly be in place by then, Cleine said.

"I'm a bit concerned by the panel's comments that some parties could possibly be prejudiced by postponing the hearings. How I read that, we're getting very close to political interference in the statutory process."

There was a risk of undermining the integrity of the TTPP by compromising the independence of the hearings panel, the Buller mayor warned.

"There is provision for us to make amendments (to the plan) once the law changes as we will have to, anyway."

Regional Council chair Peter Haddock, who joined the meeting by Zoom from Wellington, said his council (which was given the job of administering the lengthy plan process by the Local Government Commission) believed postponing the August hearing posed too many risks.

Westland Mayor Helen Lash said Hoggard had previously supported a delay.

"What is the Regional Council's agenda?" she asked.

Haddock said there was no agenda; he had originally supported a 2-month postponement.

"But this is actually a 3-and-a-half-month delay and looking at the (government's) Bill, I've changed my mind. The commissioners are really sending a red flag here."

The risk was that delaying the plan process could mean no one on the present TTPP committee would be there to make final decisions on it after the 25 October council elections.

"If we get new people in who don't understand (what's at stake) we have to wear the consequences," Mr Haddock warned.

Makaawhio chair Paul Madgwick (Ngati Mahaki) said that was unlikely.

"West Coasters are not so silly they will put Forest and Bird people around the table. They are going to put people of the same mind as us, who don't like SNAs any more than we do," he said.

"It's our plan for us, our children and those to come - mo tatou, a mo ka uri i muri ake nei - all the next ones to come and we're losing to control of it," Madgwick said.

Gibson said she was disappointed with the commissioners' reaction to the pause proposal.

"I thought they would take us more seriously - we are elected members. Their concerns are duly noted but the consequences are outweighed by the social and financial implications to the three district councils, of having to proceed with identifying and protect SNAs."

Gibson's motion to postpone the hearings was carried, with two votes against, from Cleine and Graeme Neylon.

TTPP chair Rex Williams abstained, with a parting shot.

"I've been involved in these discussions over five years, and the ratepayers of this region have set out what they wanted done with SNAs. The document needs to be believed - it was done by the region," Williams said.

Te Runanga o Makaawhio chairman Paul Madgwick, who is a member of the Te Tai o Poutini Plan Committee, is also the editor of the Greymouth Star. He took no part in commissioning, writing or editing this story.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.