Interested parties who have made submissions on the freshwater parts of the Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement will need to resubmit, following a High Court direction.
New submissions can also be made, with the new period for submissions closing on November 29.
Following the High Court direction, the ORC resolved on September 15 that only part of the proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement (pORPS) relates to freshwater, with those parts required to be re›notified for public submission.
The pORPS is the cornerstone document for the ORC’s forthcoming Land and Water Regional Plan, which is required to be publicly notified by December 2023.
The requirement to split the pORPS has resulted in about 45 provisions considered to relate directly to the management of freshwater quality or quantity, with those provisions forming the freshwater part of the pORPS, the council’s general manager of policy and science Anita Dawe said.
Because of the High Court decision, any person who submitted on the identified freshwater provisions must resubmit 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 feeds into the Land and Water Regional Plan, which is a defining document for Otago’s land and freshwater environment.’’
The remainder of the pORPS, the non›freshwater parts, are not required to be renotified and all submissions on those provisions remain in place. The non› freshwater part is the larger of the two documents.
Access to the freshwater parts of the pORPS is available at www.orc.govt.nz/fpirps, or from ORC offices in Dunedin, Alexandra or Queenstown, and district and city council offices. Further questions can be directed to ORC’s customer services on 0800 474 082.
