The Otago Regional Council is calling for submissions on the freshwater parts of its proposed Otago regional policy statement.
Following a High Court direction, the council resolved on September 15 that only part of the proposed statement relates to freshwater, and those parts had to be re›notified for public submission.
Splitting the proposed strategy has resulted in about 45 provisions considered to relate directly to the management of freshwater quality or quantity, council policy and science general manager Anita Dawe said.
Because of the High Court decision, anyone who submitted on the identified freshwater provisions must resubmit on those parts for their submissions to be able to be considered, she said.
‘‘We’re encouraging all those people who submitted last year on the now identified freshwater provisions to make new submissions.
‘‘Those submissions can mirror the points submitters made last year, or have new, different or additional points. The submission process is available to everyone, however, irrespective of whether you submitted last year,’’ Ms Dawe said.
‘‘It’s really important people have their say now as this [proposed statement] feeds into the Land and Water Regional Plan, which is a defining document for Otago’s land and freshwater environment.’’
The non›freshwater parts of the proposed statement do not need to be re›notified. All submissions relating to those parts remain in place. The non› freshwater part is the larger of the two documents.
The freshwater parts can be accessed at www.orc.govt.nz/ fpirps, or from council offices in Dunedin, Alexandra, or Queenstown, and district and city council offices. Further questions can be directed to the council’s customer services, phone 0800 474›082.
Submissions must be in Form 5 (found at www.orc.govt.nz/ fpirps) and state whether the submitter wants to speak at a hearing.
Submissions close on November 29.
