Latest news with #LoisWilliams
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
West Coast Iwi Back Moves To Speed Up Goldmining Consents
Article – Lois Williams – Local Democracy Reporter The Mana Whakahono a Rohe partnership deal is up for its five-year review. It formally acknowledges the partnership and relationship between council and Poutini Ngi Tahu. West Coast iwi are backing a plan to making resource consents less of a bureaucratic maze for alluvial goldminers. The West Coast Regional Council is aiming to speed up the consent application process by working with Poutini Ngāi Tahu and the industry to write standard conditions and clearer templates. Goldminers keen to capitalise on the current gold price have been queuing for consents in recent months. And some have complained about the complexity of the process and the time it takes to gain council and iwi approval of conditions. Under the RMA, the council must work with manawhenua on environmental matters – a policy reinforced by the Mana Whakahono a Rohe partnership deal it signed with Poutini Ngāi Tahu in 2020. The agreement is now up for its five-year review. And at a public workshop this week, Poutini Ngai Tahu Partnership and Economic Development Manager Ashley Stuart said the council had not yet lived up to the agreement by sorting out the practicalities. 'We haven't fully delivered on actions set out in the agreement and have come to realise there is an actual level of discomfort for some, in how this is working in practice,' Ms Stuart said. The value of collaborating with iwi for the good of the West Coast economy had not changed, but there was a need for more clarity on who did what, and when. 'It's not a tradeoff – it's a balance,' Ms Stuart said. The changes proposed in the document spell out council and iwi responsibilities to work together on consents for other activities as well, including drinking water supplies, sewerage systems, landfills and flood protection 'But … we cannot keep spending time working re-actively, assessing every single consent as if it's the first time we've worked together. We're going backwards if we keep going on that route.' Council chair Peter Haddock said the Council had a great relationship with West Coast iwi and he treasured that, but agreed the consent process needed streamlining. 'I've looked at a couple (of mining applications) – they're going back and forth between the council and Poutini Ngāi Tahu and it's holding things up.' Ngati Waewae representative Francois Tumahai agreed. 'You're right – it's doubling up and we don't need to. (But) with a set of conditions everyone agrees on, we're done and dusted.' The Mana Whakahono a Rohe review was intended to iron those glitches out, Mr Tumahai said. 'We don't want to hold things up. Poutini Ngāi Tahu is a big promoter of mining on the West Coast and we intend to stay that way.' WCRC chief executive Darryl Lew said goldmining was not the only industry that stood to gain from a clearer, simplified resource consent application system. 'We will start with mining and go thematically through some of our intensive work areas; dairy effluent consents, point source discharges from wastewater plants; even down to whitebait stands, because we have 500 of those up for renewal in the next 18-months,' Mr Lew said. If the council and iwi could agree with iwi on standard consent conditions for alluvial goldmining in the next couple of weeks, the next step would be a workshop with industry representatives to see if everyone could agree. Councillor Allan Birchfield waved a copy of a resource consent he was granted in 1993 under the RMA for alluvial mining at Red Jacks Creek. The three-page consent – seen by LDR – required him to build a weir to protect a rail bridge and supply a stockpile of rock for repairs. The council need look no further than its own records for examples of simple consent forms, he suggested. 'You've gone wrong over the years, made it more and more complicated. We should have worked out a set of conditions for any site.. get it signed and get people to work.' In response to a question, Ms Stuart said the impending RMA reforms were unlikely to change the requirement for councils and iwi to work together. 'But even if it does change would we want to move away? Some question, do we have to partner? … We don't have to work with industry, but we do because it's the right thing to do.' The partnership agreement simply set out how that would happen and gave the iwi no extra powers, Ms Stuart said.
Scoop
01-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
West Coast Councils Eye Combined Water Company
Article – Lois Williams – Local Democracy Reporter The three WC district councils are moving to set up a joint CCO to manage water. West Coast District councils are preparing to join forces to manage water services. Under the Government's 'Local Water Done Well' reforms, councils must either set up their own units to run drinking water and sewerage systems or form a combined entity with neighbouring districts. Buller mayor Jamie Cleine says his council has had talks with both Tasman and Marlborough but at this stage, those councils are leaning towards separate internal business units. 'They see some merit in joining up into a bigger unit eventually, and they've left the door open for Buller, but at this point the three West Coast councils are pretty much aligned,' Mr Cleine said. Talks between Grey and Westland were more advanced, Mr Cleine said, but all three councils were effectively on the same page. Buller would begin consultation on the joint option this month, the mayor said. 'We've made good progress. We'll see what the community wants us to do, but at governance level we've arrived at the same point, in regard to the benefits and risks of a shared unit versus going it alone. ' The new water business unit would be a multi -council CCO [council-controlled organisation], owned by all three councils Mr Cleine said. 'Obviously the West Coast councils will have to make a final decision on this – it may be that community feedback will steer us in a different direction, but we can see a clear advantage to it. ' The costs and debt of water systems in each district would be ring-fenced within the regional CCO, with no one council cross-subsidising another, Mr Cleine said. 'Each of us has infrastructure work to do and we would not all be paying the same amount for water services, though that could change down the track when all our networks have been upgraded and everyone's getting the same standard of service.' The CCO would take on each council's current sewerage and drinking water assets and debt and would be able to borrow from the Local Government Funding Agency to upgrade them at a cheaper rate than a council going it alone, Mr Cleine said. 'That's the purpose of the whole legislation nationwide: to enable further borrowing and whether you agree with that or not, that is absolutely the intent of Local Water Done Well.' The lower interest rate available to joint CCOs was a 'carrot' or incentive for councils to combine their water services, Mr Cleine said. 'But there's a bit of a stick there as well: we have to increase our borrowing and get our infrastructure up to standard at a faster pace than what any council was proposing to do.' A council going it alone would have to meet all the same Government water standards and obligations but would not be able to borrow as much, and would pay a higher interest rate, he said. It would also have to meet the expectations of the Commerce Commission. 'So if you had an internal business unit, the Commerce Commission would come and do an added audit of your council to make sure you deliver water services in the most commercially efficient manner. ' A combined, independent water CCO could borrow up to 400 percent of its asset value, giving more headroom for intergenerational investment and payback over a longer period. In Buller's case the required work would include separating sewage from stormwater flowing into the Buller River in heavy rain, and upgrading water storage and home filter systems for small rural water supplies. 'We don't have a choice not to upgrade our water systems, the Government requires it and we either go it alone and pay more or do it together and pay less,' Mr Cleine said. Consultation documents to be released in mid-May would explain the options, hopefully in plain English, Mr Cleine said. 'In terms of where we're at with a three-council CCO, West Coast councils are looking good at the staff and political level – the next phase will be hearing from our communities.'
Scoop
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
TTPP Costs Climb Again – But Commissioners' Fees Forecast To Drop
Article – Lois Williams – Local Democracy Reporter The West Coast Regional Council was ordered by the Local Government Commission to administer the lengthy process and has had to forecast costs as best it can, rating and borrowing to cover them as they arise. 24 April Hearing Commissioner costs for the West Coast's new District Plan are still running ahead of budget – but their bill for the year now looks set to be less hefty than predicted. A meeting yesterday of the Tai o Poutini Plan committee yesterday heard that Commissioner costs were running more than half a million dollars over the year-to-date budget of $142,667. Consultant planners and contractors' fees were also over budget by $241,000. But project manager Jo Armstrong said she now expected the Commissioner-related costs to be nearly $450,000 less than forecast by next June. 'I have highlighted for most of the year that there would be insufficient budget for that Hearing Commissioner fee item…but I do think the full year forecast that I put forward earlier may have been overstated…so that's good news.' And [council] employee costs for the period were down by $92,000 – less than half the budget forecast. There has never been a fixed budget for the Plan. The West Coast Regional Council was ordered by the Local Government Commission to administer the lengthy process and has had to forecast costs as best it can, rating and borrowing to cover them as they arise. The TTPP committee's response to the 'good news' this week was muted. Its members – council leaders and iwi – were rocked last month by estimates that the 'one plan to rule them all' will have cost West Coasters more than $8 million by the time it's released in September. The independent commissioners who heard all the TTPP submissions and drove the length and breadth of the Coast to do it, are now working their way through its chapters, finalising the rules and writing their reports. The added expenses for the period had come about because of extra work and services that were unforeseen, Ms Armstrong explained. Media costs for advertising, expected to cost about $8000, had climbed to nearly $20,000. That was down to the need to notify a variation to the Natural Hazards chapter and call for further submissions after changes to the maps following a Lidar survey. And legal expenses, although less than predicted, came to $62,000 . 'We've been taking a lot of legal advice on different topics that the Hearings Commissioners requested …to make sure their recommendations are well-grounded,' Ms Armstrong said. A number of builders and developers around the West Coast are awaiting the release of the 'Decisions' version of the Plan in spring, with zoning changes expected to open up new areas of land for housing. One of the larger projects waiting for the green light is a 200-lot subdivision at Moana, that was submitted to the Grey District Council several years ago as a private plan change, but withdrawn in anticipation of the new Plan.
Scoop
22-04-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Meatworks And Council Clam Up Over West Coast Effluent Breach
Article – Lois Williams – Local Democracy Reporter The company told the council this month that it had exceeded that limit on April 7. But it has declined to answer further questions about why it was unable to stick to the consented limit. The owners of the Kokiri meatworks are refusing to answer questions about the latest breach of its resource consent while the matter is under investigation by the West Coast Regional Council. ANZCO Foods Ltd was prosecuted by the council and fined $60,000 in the Greymouth District Court this month for submitting false and misleading monitoring reports about its effluent discharges. Kokiri is permitted to release 6,100 cubic metres of wastewater a day from its oxidation pond into the Arnold River. The effluent includes wastewater from toilets, stock wash-down facilities and the plant itself. The company told the council this month that it had exceeded that limit on April 7. But it has declined to answer further questions about why it was unable to stick to the consented limit. LDR asked the company how the excess effluent release happened, whether the oxidation pond flooded and whether it had plans to enlarge its system or take other steps to avoid repeats. In court, the company said its previous misreporting was down to 'a serious lapse of judgement' by one employee and it had new systems in place to ensure accurate monitoring and reporting. LDR has asked if that meant Kokiri would simply do a better job of reporting its consent breaches in future rather than take steps to prevent them. The company's communications manager Janet Wright responded: 'The event you're inquiring about is an open event with the Regional Council and as such we're unable to comment on it.' The Regional Council has declined to say by how much Kokiri exceeded its allowable effluent discharge on April 7, because it is in the throes of investigating the breach. The council did say that its records showed the company had exceeded counts in its releases three times between 2017 and 2023. LDR has asked under the LGOIMA (Official Information Act) whether the West Coast Regional Council will review the conditions of Kokiri's resource consent. – LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Otago Daily Times
22-04-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Meatworks, council clam up over effluent breach
The ANZCO Kokiri processing plant and Arnold River in the background. Photo: supplied / ANZCO Owners of the Kokiri meatworks are refusing to answer questions about the latest breach of its resource consent while the matter is under investigation by the West Coast Regional Council. ANZCO Foods Ltd was prosecuted by the council and fined $60,000 in the Greymouth District Court this month for submitting false and misleading monitoring reports about its effluent discharges. Kokiri is permitted to release 6100 cubic metres of wastewater a day from its oxidation pond into the Arnold River. The effluent includes wastewater from toilets, stock wash-down facilities and the plant itself. The company told the council this month that it had exceeded that limit on April 7. But it has declined to answer further questions about why it was unable to stick to the consented limit. Local Democracy Reporting asked the company how the excess effluent release happened, whether the oxidation pond flooded and whether it had plans to enlarge its system or take other steps to avoid repeats. In court, the company said its previous misreporting was down to "a serious lapse of judgement" by one employee and it had new systems in place to ensure accurate monitoring and reporting. LDR has asked if that meant Kokiri would simply do a better job of reporting its consent breaches in future rather than take steps to prevent them. The company's communications manager Janet Wright responded: 'The event you're inquiring about is an open event with the Regional Council and as such we're unable to comment on it.' The council has declined to say by how much Kokiri exceeded its allowable effluent discharge on April 7, because it is in the throes of investigating the breach. It did say that its records showed the company had exceeded counts in its releases three times between 2017 and 2023. LDR has asked under the LGOIMA (Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act) whether the West Coast Regional Council will review the conditions of Kokiri's resource consent. - By Lois Williams Local Democracy Reporter • LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
