Committee Members Cr Neville Cook (Chair) Cr Lloyd McCallum Cr Allan Baird Cr Jeremy McPhail Cr Lloyd Esler Cr David Stevens Cr Robert Guyton Chairman Nicol Horrell (ex officio) Cr Bonnie Mager Regulatory Committee (Whakaretea) 1.30 pm 13 November 2019 A G E N D A (Rarangi Take) 1. Welcome (Haere mai) 2. Apologies (Nga Pa Pouri) 3. Declarations of Interest 4. Public Forum, Petitions and Deputations (He Huinga tuku korero) 5. Confirmation of Minutes (Whakau korero) – 24 July 2019 6. Notification of Extraordinary and Urgent Business (He Panui Autaia hei Totoia Pakihi) 6.1 Supplementary Reports 6.2 Other 7. Questions (Patai) 8. Chairman and Councillors’ Reports (Nga Purongo-a-Tumuaki me nga Kaunihera) 9. Election of Deputy Chair to the Committee 10. Director of Policy, Planning & Regulatory Services’ Report - 19/RC/97 Item 1 – Annual Compliance Monitoring Report 2018/19 .............................................10 Item 2 – Consents Team Activity and Performance – 1 July to 30 September 2019 .....12 Item 3 - Environmental Compliance Division Report – 5 July to 22 October 2019 .........29 Regulatory Committee – 13 November 2019 11. Extraordinary and Urgent Business (Panui Autaia hei Totoia Pakihi) 12. Public Excluded Business (He hui Pakihi e hara mo te iwi) V M Smith Director of Policy, Planning & Regulatory Services RECOMMENDATIONS IN COUNCIL REPORTS ARE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS COUNCIL POLICY UNTIL ADOPTED BY COUNCIL 2019 November 13 - Page 2 Regulatory Committee Agenda.docx Regulatory Committee – 13 November 2019 Terms of Reference Regulatory Committee Council assigns to the Committee responsibilities from time-to-time, and the Committee provides advice and reports back to Council on: 1. the approval of non-notified resource consent applications; 2. the need for formal review and amendment of existing plans, strategies and by-laws; 3. the consideration and determination of notified consent applications that are unable to be dealt with via the existing delegations to staff (via the appointment of qualified hearing panels); 4. the appointment and performance of hearing committees/panels; 5. the implementation of NPS, frameworks, and environmental standards required; 6. the monitoring of regional plans, strategies and bylaws. 7. compliance and enforcement activities, including those relating to permitted activities, resource consents and biosecurity matters. 2019 November 13 - Page 3 Regulatory Committee Agenda.docx Regulatory Committee – 13 November 2019 Confirmation of Minutes Regulatory Committee Meeting – 24 July 2019 2019 November 13 - Page 4 Regulatory Committee Agenda.docx Minutes of the Regulatory Committee Meeting of the Southland Regional Council, held in Regional House, corner North Road and Price Street, Invercargill, on Wednesday, 24 July 2019, at 1.30 pm _______________________________________ Present: Cr NMG Cook (Chair) Cr G R Cockburn Cr Currie Cr R Guyton Chairman Horrell Cr G Hubber Cr L Ludlow Cr L McCallum Cr M Rodway In Attendance: Cr J McPhail Staff Present: Mr V Smith (Director of Policy, Planning and Regulatory Services) Mr R Phillips (Chief Executive) Mr S Mapp (Compliance Manager) Mr M Durand (Consents Manager) Mrs T McCann (Communications Co-ordinator) Mrs N Baxter (Personal Assistant) 1 Welcome (Haere mai) The Chairman welcomed members to the Regulatory Committee meeting. 2 Apologies (Ngā pa pouri) There were no apologies to be recorded as all members were in attendance. 3 Declarations of Interest There were no declarations of interest. 4 Public Forum, Petitions and Deputations (He huinga tuku kōrero) There were no public forum, petitions or deputations presented to the meeting. Environment Southland is the brand name of Southland Regional Council Regulatory Committee – 24 July 2019 5 Confirmation of Minutes (Whakaū kōrero) Resolved: Moved Cr Cockburn, seconded Cr McCallum, that the minutes of the Regulatory Committee meeting held on 1 May 2019 be taken as read and confirmed as a true and correct record. Carried 6 Notification of Extraordinary and Urgent Business (He pānui autaia, me hei totoia pākihi) 6.1 Supplementary Reports There were no supplementary reports considered by the meeting. 6.2 Other There were no other items of business raised by Councillors for inclusion in the agenda. 7 Questions (Ngā pātai) Cr Guyton asked what actions Council were taking in response to the letter from the Oraka Aparima Runaka which was in the Southland Times newspaper the day prior to the meeting. The Chair replied that this letter had not been put forward to this Committee and that the letter would go to the Chief Executive and then staff would report back to the full Council. Cr Guyton then asked why staff had not forwarded the letter onto Councillors Chairman Horrell informed the Committee that the Chief Executive had received the letter and he noted that he was both surprised and disappointed that this letter had been leaked to the media, and that Council had not had the opportunity to discuss it with the runaka before it was released. He said that Environment Southland has a good relationship with Iwi and there would be a meeting regarding the content of the letter. The Chair noted that staff had included the letter in the Chairman’s Correspondence Schedule. 8 Chairman and Councillors’ Reports (Ngā Purongo-ā-Tumuaki me ngā Kaunihera) Neither the Chairman nor any Councillors presented reports. Page 2 Regulatory Committee – 24 July 2019 9 Director of Policy, Planning & Regulatory Services’ Report – 19/RC/59 Item 1 – Consents Team Activity and Performance – 1 April to 30 June 2019 Mr Durand spoke to this report and took the report as read. He pointed out that the work load was quite high due to the number of dairy conversions which took place ten years ago, resulting in most of the consents from those conversions now requiring renewal. The Chair enquired about the six old applications which were still in progress and if his team had received any response from the letters that were sent out to the applicants. Mr Durand was not aware of any responses to the letters at the time of the meeting. Cr Hubber asked if Council had to keep the six applications in progress, Mr Durand explained that the RMA does not give a specific tool for dealing with old applications that had gone over time. The Chair noted the applicant is invited to consider withdrawing their application if they were unable to make progress on it. Mr Smith said that a further option is to continue to process the application and decline the consent as a way of wrapping these overtime consent applications up. Cr Rodway declared an interest in the Fiordland Trails Trust application. In response to questions posed Mr Durand said that the hearing date for that particular application had not been set and there was a legal obligation to notify the public ten days before any hearing. The website will be updated as the application progresses. The meeting briefly discussed “calling in” of applications and the current status of the King Salmon application and noted that the King Salmon application had been withdrawn and re-lodged Resolved: Moved Cr McCallum, seconded Chairman Horrell, that Council note the activity and performance of the Consents Division. Carried Item 2 – Environmental Compliance Division Report – 8 April to 5 July 2019 Mr Mapp spoke to this report and took it as read. He highlighted and spoke to the independent analysis work that the SIG group had completed as set out in his report. He informed the committee that this report was the first of its kind and Environment Southland were one of the only regulatory bodies in the environmental space that provides this type of information. He did note that until three or four of these reports were completed it would be difficult to identify trends. The Chair noted that the media was endeavouring to compare different Council’s activities by the number of prosecutions they take against the number of incidents, he wondered if that was a valid measurement? Mr Mapp said that it could be a valid measurement, but cited a prosecution from 2016 that is still not complete as an example of how this could be unfair when used in this context. Page 3 Regulatory Committee – 24 July 2019 In response to questions raised by Cr Rodway in relation to p61 of the report and particularly the linkage between CME operations and environmental outcomes, Mr Mapp advised that the report gave areas to work on. Cr Rodway also commented on the CEs involvement in the day-to-day calls that are being made. He felt more clarity was needed so that it was not perceived that the CE makes the decision if a prosecution goes ahead or not. Mr Smith advised all prosecutions go through a standard investigation and reporting framework. When a prosecution is taken it was referred to legal counsel to review and ensure that it meets crown prosecution guidelines. The matter then goes to the CE who considers the issue on the merits before him. There is a standardised set of criteria which the CE considers in determining whether a prosecution should occur or not, to make sure every issue is treated in a fair and consistent manner. Resolved: Moved Cr Ludlow, seconded Cr McCallum, that Council note the Environmental Compliance Division report for the period 8 April 2019 to 5 July 2019. Carried 10 Extraordinary and Urgent Business (He pānui autaia, me hei totoia pākihi) There were no items of extraordinary or urgent business considered by the meeting. 11 Public Excluded Business (He hui pākihi, e hara mō te iwi) There were no items of public excluded business considered by the meeting. Termination There being no further business, the meeting closed at 2.10pm. Page 4 Regulatory Committee – 13 November 2019 9. Election of Deputy Chair of the Committee Councillors will recall at the Inaugural meeting (held on 29 October 2019) that it was resolved that each of the Principal Standing Committees would elect its own Deputy Chair, in the event that the Chair was unable to attend and/or participate in a meeting.