Minutes of a meeting of the Environment Committee

Held in the Council Chamber, Civic House, 110 Trafalgar Street, Nelson on Thursday 3 September 2020, commencing at 9.09a.m.

Present:               Councillor K Fulton (Chairperson), Her Worship the Mayor R Reese, Councillors B McGurk (Deputy Chairperson), Y Bowater, T Brand, M Courtney, J Edgar, M Lawrey, G Noonan, R O'Neill-Stevens, R Sanson, T Skinner and Ms G Paine

In Attendance:     Group Manager Environmental Management (C Barton), Governance Adviser (E Stephenson) and Governance Support (K McLean)

Apologies :           Her Worship the Mayor Reese for lateness and Councillor Rainey for absence

            Karakia Timatanga

          There was an opening karakia.

            The Chairperson acknowledged the passing of Council staff member Katherine Hunziker.  Council’s Kaihautu, Pania Lee, gave a purification karakia, which was followed by a minute of silence.

 

1.       Apologies

Resolved EC/2020/030
	That the Environment Committee 1.       Accepts the apologies from Her Worship the Mayor Reese for lateness and from Councillor Rainey for absence.
Courtney/Bowater                                                                            Carried

2.       Confirmation of Order of Business

The Chairperson’s Report (Agenda Item 6) was considered as the last item of business.

3.       Interests

There were no updates to the Interests Register, and no interests with items on the agenda were declared.

4.       Public Forum 

There was no public forum.

5.       Confirmation of Minutes

5.1       23 July 2020

Document number M12016, agenda pages 5 - 9 refer.

Resolved EC/2020/031
	That the Environment Committee 1.     Confirms the minutes of the meeting of the Environment Committee, held on 23 July 2020, as a true and correct record.
McGurk/Paine                                                                                   Carried

6.       Whakamahere Whakatū Nelson Plan Programme Update (Agenda Item 7)

Document number R18190, agenda pages 10 - 21 refer.

Manager Environmental Planning, Maxine Day, presented the report.  She noted an amendment to change the word ‘consultation’ to ‘public engagement’ in the second bullet point of clause 2 of the officer recommendation, to better reflect the terminology in the Resource Management Act 1995.

Ms Day advised the Committee of a correction to paragraph 3.3 of the agenda report in that only the parts of the Nelson Plan that had not been released in phase 1 would be released at phase 2 in March 2021.

Ms Day answered questions regarding Council’s communication and consultation/public engagement for the Nelson Plan. It was clarified that the public engagement phase was a pre consultation phase and agreed that it should be clearly communicated to the public that formal submissions to the Nelson Plan would begin when the Nelson Plan was notified in 2022, giving the public three opportunities to provide input to this significant document.

Further questions were answered regarding key stakeholder testing, the importance of public feedback, the significance of the Nelson Plan, the impact of the Randerson Report on new directions for resource management in New Zealand, the consultation process with local government on the Randerson Report, and issues relating to Nelson Plan software.

The Chairperson acknowledged officers’ work on the Nelson Plan and the clear communication with Council’s Nelson Plan Governance Steering Group.

Resolved EC/2020/032
	That the Environment Committee 1.     Receives the report Whakamahere Whakatū Nelson Plan Programme Update (R18190) and its attachment (A2425419); and 2.     Approves the updated programme for the Whakamahere Whakatū Nelson Plan, as follows ·    Undertaking two phases of public engagement, the first in October 2020, and the second in March 2021; and ·    Anticipated notification of the Proposed Plan in February 2022.
McGurk/Lawrey                                                                                Carried

7.       Environmental Management Group - Quarterly Report (Agenda Item 8)

Document number R16951, agenda pages 22 - 1 refer.

Group Manager Environmental Management, Clare Barton, Manager Consents and Compliance, Mandy Bishop and Manager Science and Environment, Jo Martin answered questions regarding air quality, biosecurity and pest control, Marina incursions, wetland mapping, the Biodiversity Strategy and the Environmental Grant Scheme.

Attendance: Her Worship the Mayor Reese entered the meeting at 10.31a.m.

Team Leader City Development, Lisa Gibellini answered questions regarding progress and budget for the Pop up Park and the Intensification Action Plan.

Further questions were answered regarding costs and efficiencies, staff resources and future funding sources.

Resolved EC/2020/033
	The Environment Committee 1.     Receives the report Environmental Management Group - Quarterly Report (R16951) and its attachments (A2367256, A2433854, A2415060 and A2282783).
McGurk/Fulton                                                                                  Carried

       

The meeting was adjourned from 10.48a.m. until 11.06a.m., during which time Councillors Noonan and Sanson left the meeting.

8.       Chairperson's Report (Agenda Item 6)

The Chairperson’s report was tabled (A2455051). The Chair summarised points in her report, which included food resilience in climate change, the contribution of food waste to greenhouse gases, regenerative agriculture, utilisation of Council owned land and urban spaces for food resiliency, development of the Urban Greening Plan, the Adopt a Spot programme, liveable cities, the Waste Minimisation Trial, Biodiversity Restoration, and the Saxton Creek Restoration Project.
Resolved EC/2020/034
	That the Environment Committee 1.       Receives the Chairperson’s Report (A2455051).
Paine/Courtney                                                                                 Carried
Attachments 1    A2455051 - Chairperson's Report (R20282)

 

Karakia whakamutunga

There was a closing karakia.

 

 

There being no further business the meeting ended at 11.42a.m.

 

Confirmed as a correct record of proceedings:

 

 

 

                                                         Chairperson                                    Date