Planning and Regulatory Committee Minutes - 22 November 2018
Minutes of a meeting of the Planning and Regulatory Committee
Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson
On Thursday 22 November 2018, commencing at 9.00a.m. Deliberation of Submissions State of the Environment Monitoring and Research Charges
Present: Councillor B McGurk (Chairperson), Her Worship the Mayor R Reese, Councillors L Acland, I Barker, B Dahlberg, K Fulton and S Walker
In Attendance: Group Manager Environmental Management (C Barton) and Governance Adviser (E Stephenson)
Apology: Ms G Paine
1. Apologies
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Resolved PR/2018/068 That the Planning and Regulatory Committee Receives and accepts an apology from Ms Paine. |
2. Confirmation of Order of Business
There was no change to the order of business.
There were no updates to the Interests Register, and no interests with items on the agenda were declared.
4. Deliberations on Environmental Monitoring and Science Charges
Document number R9800, agenda pages 5 - 38 refer.
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Environmental Programmes Adviser, Richard Frizzell, presented the report. Mr Frizzell noted that officers had reviewed the recommendations regarding wastewater treatment, including septic tanks, and had made revisions around the permitted activities. A revised Schedule of Annual Environmental Monitoring and Science Charges (A2098732) was tabled. Attendance: Councillor Fulton entered the meeting at 9.04a.m. Attendance: Her Worship the Mayor entered the meeting at 9.05a.m. until 9.10a.m. The matters raised in the submissions were considered separately. Septic Tanks Mr Frizzell explained the change in the recommendation. He noted the distinction between permitted discharge levels and charged levels and State of the Environment (SOE) monitoring charges, the increasing scale of charges and the two components. He answered questions regarding current monitoring practice. Group Manager Environmental Management, Clare Barton, answered questions regarding monitoring and potential impact and explained the larger the potential effect/use of a natural resource, the higher the proposed charge. Ms Barton clarified that if a system required a resource consent, charges would apply, if no consent was required, there would be no charges. Attendance: Her Worship the Mayor returned to the meeting at 9.24a.m. Permitted Activities Mr Frizzell clarified that charges would not apply to permitted activities because the trigger was a resource consent. There was no change to the recommendation. Existing Monitoring Charges Ms Barton clarified that charges for monitoring of consent conditions were for a raft of consent conditions, rather than environmental monitoring. There was no change to the recommendation. Short term water takes Mr Frizzell explained the change in the recommendation. He noted that under the proposed charges the consent holder would be subject to an annual fee for an activity that may only occur once in that period, comments had been received from Council’s consents team that it was considered good practice to be proactive, and that charges should relate to when a consent is given effect to and may only be for a period of a year. Stormwater discharges It was reiterated that the proposed charges would not apply as stormwater discharges to the reticulated network could be undertaken as of right. There was no change to the recommendation. Rationale for the charges Mr Frizzell noted that this was a general submission seeking rationale, he reiterated the points made earlier about when charges would be applied and outlined what they covered. Ms Barton clarified that the charges only applied to new consent applications from 1 January 2019, not to existing consent holders. Discussion took place regarding permitted water takes and Ms Barton confirmed that there was a permitted volume of water take which would not be subject to SOE charges. Further discussion took place regarding equity, whole of community benefits, cumulative effect, the process to-date, the value of robust SOE monitoring data to the public and decommissioning underground infrastructure and it was agreed to request a report on the implementation of the charges in two years’ time. |
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Resolved PR/2018/069 That the Planning and Regulatory Committee Receives the report Deliberations on Environmental Monitoring and Science Charges (R9800) and its attachments (A1979547, A2080680, A2079588, and A2080700); and Endorses the Revised Schedule of Annual Environmental Monitoring and Science Charges for final Council approval (A2098732); and Requests that a report be brought back to the Council on the implementation of the charges by November 2020. |
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1 A2098732 - Revised Schedule of Annual Environmental Monitoring and Science Charges |
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Recommendation to Council PR/2018/070 That the Council Approves the Revised Schedule of Annual Environmental Monitoring and Science Charges (A2098732). |
There being no further business the meeting ended at 9.58a.m.
Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings:
Chairperson
Date