Hearing on key West Coast nature reserve postponed

Hearings on the most controversial part of the West Coast New District plan have been postponed until November as the local council seeks confirmation that planning for Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) will no longer be required.

Independent commissioners are due to hold hearings this month on the ecosystems and biodiversity chapter of the proposed Te Teopoutini Plan (TTPP).

This section implements RMA rules requiring councils to map and protect important natural areas (usually native tree species) on private land.

However, as the government begins an urgent process to overhaul resource management laws, West Coast councils are hoping to avoid the unpopular and costly exercise.

The TTPP committee, which is made up of parliamentary representatives and tribes, voted on Wednesday to postpone the biodiversity hearing until November 18.

Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson said it made no sense to put rules in place when the Government said it did not want a new SNA.

The UK government said in March it would suspend the obligation for councils to implement the new SNA, saying it would be “unwise” to waste resources and energy implementing national guidance that was likely to change.

But Gibson said this left the TTPP committee in a quandary as to what standards and rules on biodiversity should be included in the new plan.

“We need guidance from the government. The law hasn’t changed, but it’s about to change, and the TTPP planning process has entered a critical phase of the SNA – what do we do?”

Of the three West Coast district councils, only Mayor Gibson’s district council has gone through the SNA process.

“We did this fifteen years ago, but under current biodiversity rules we have to create more biodiversity – people in the grey area don’t want that, and we don’t have the funding.”

Gibson proposed that the TTPP committee ask commissioners to postpone the August hearing, despite the possible consequences.

A commissioner’s note read out at the meeting warned that changing the date could adversely affect parties to the hearing, cause additional costs to the council and ultimately delay the release of the hearing panel’s decision.

“Given that all parties have been given advance notice, the panel wishes to proceed with the August hearing…Expert evidence has been arranged and preparation of legal documents is underway.

“The principles of natural justice must be upheld.”

Buller Mayor Jamie Klein said he was not in favor of postponing the August hearing.

“I’ve looked at the proposed Freshwater and Other Matters Amendment Bill and it actually cuts back a lot of what we’re talking about. It specifically excludes any SNAs that are already in place and provides a three-year window for any new content, so it doesn’t impact any of the SNAs that are in the proposed package.”

Klein said the TTPP gave parliaments a reasonable amount of time to finalize new SNAs, by which time the new standards would almost certainly be in place.

“I am a little concerned about the panel’s comments that delaying the hearing could disadvantage certain parties. It seems to me that we are getting very close to political interference in the statutory process.”

Mayor Buller warned that the independence of the hearing panel could undermine the integrity of the TTPP.

“Once the law changes, we can make changes to the plan, which we have to do anyway.”

Regional council chairman Peter Haddock, who attended the meeting via Zoom from Wellington, said his council – which is entrusted by the Local Government Commission to manage the lengthy planning process – believed delaying the August hearing would carry too many risks.

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

“What’s on the regional committee’s agenda?” she asked.

Haddock said there was no agenda; he had initially supported a two-month delay.

“But it’s actually been delayed for three and a half months, and after looking at the government’s bill, I changed my mind. The commissioners did issue a warning here.”

The risk is that delaying the plan’s progress could mean that after the October 25 parliamentary election, no one on the current TTPP committee will be able to make a final decision on the plan.

“If we recruit new people who don’t understand (the stakes), we have to live with the consequences,” Haddock warned.

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

“West Coasters aren’t stupid enough to put foresters and bird conservationists together. They’re going to put people who think like us together, who don’t like the SNA as much as we do,” he said.

“This is the plan we made for ourselves, for our children and for future generations, and we are losing control of it,” Madwick said.

Gibson said she was disappointed with the commissioners’ response to the moratorium proposal.

“I thought they would take us more seriously – we are elected councillors. Their concerns have been taken seriously as they should be, but for the three district councils the social and financial impacts of continuing to identify and protect SNAs far outweigh the consequences.”

Gibson’s motion to postpone the hearing was granted, but Klein and Graeme Neylon cast two votes against it.

TTPP Chairman Rex Williams abstained from voting and gave a parting message.

“I’ve been involved in these discussions for five years, and the district’s taxpayers have articulated how they want to utilize the SNA. This document deserves trust — it was developed by the district,” Williams said.

Te Rununga o Makaawhio chair Paul Madgwick is a member of the Te Tai o Poutini planning committee and Greymouth Star. He had no role in commissioning, writing or editing this story.

LDR is a local news organisation jointly funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.