Have say on discussion document, public urged

Northlanders are being urged to have their say on a discussion document that will
help set the scene for a major rewrite of a local authority plan that will play a key role
in the region’s future.

The Regional Policy Statement (RPS) is designed to ensure the region’s natural
and physical resources are sustainably managed, making it one of Northland’s most
important planning tools.

However, the current Northland Regional Council RPS is now 10 years old and work
to develop it began even longer ago, in the early 1990s.

Kathryn Ross, the NRC’s Regional Policy Senior Programme Manager, says a
review of the existing RPS had highlighted the many legal, social, environmental,
economic and other changes that had occurred since the plan was written. These
include:

Regional issues which have taken on an added urgency, including
infrastructural matters like sewerage, water quality and supply and climate
change

A much better understanding of the environment and the pressures on it
Increased regional emphasis on the economic and social wellbeing of
Northlanders

The increasing recognition of the role of Maori across a range of issues
Law changes which mean any new RPS will now have greater influence on
Regional and District Plans.


Ms Ross says given the importance of a new RPS, Regional Councillors were keen
to see as much input as possible from those it would affect.

To that end, the outgoing Council had asked at its last meeting that the public be
given an extended period to comment on a discussion document that would help
shape the content and approach of a draft RPS expected to be released in mid 2011.

That discussion document – which itself runs to more than 60 pages - was released
for public comment today (subs: Fri 22 Oct) and people will be able to voice their
opinions on it until Friday, 17 December.

“It’s important to stress that this discussion document is exactly that – a discussion
document, not a draft of the new RPS itself,” Ms Ross says.