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Promoting environmental wellbeing under the Local Government Act 2002

Wellbeing links

Local Government Act guidance

Cultural Wellbeing

Economic Wellbeing

If you are involved in planning for, developing, implementing and evaluating your council's Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP), then these pages are for you! The LTCCP process and the identification of community outcomes are new, so the information included here is evolving and will be updated.

The Department of Internal Affairs administers the Local Government Act and provides information about the Act to central and local government. These web pages and Ministry for the Environment input is part of a larger central government response. For more information click on the wellbeing links.

The Ministry for the Environment leads many activities, projects and programmes relevant to communities and the environment they want to achieve. These pages have links to information that focuses on the environment and will influence the achievement of community wellbeing, a requirement under the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA). Community wellbeing includes four dimensions; environmental, social, economic and cultural. While some councils have found it useful to address these dimensions separately, action in one is likely to impact on the others.

Environmental wellbeing under the LGA is defined by what environmental outcomes your community wants to achieve, and how they prioritise the actions to achieve them.

Ministry for the Environment and the LGA

The Ministry provides advice and leadership on New Zealand's environment across central and local government.

The Ministry is keen to help councils achieve environmental wellbeing for their communities. The Ministry has a set of nationally focussed outcomes relating to environmental wellbeing, methods to achieve them, and ways of measuring them. This is outlined in the Ministry outcomes page of our Statement of Intent.

The assistance the Ministry provides includes:

  1. This web page guidance. These pages are based around the planning cycle:

    Planning your LTCCP process Planning your LTCCP process Implementing your LTCCP Monitoring environmental outcomes Click on each step above to navigate the promoting environmental wellbeing web pages.
  2. Liaison on environmental outcomes at a regional level. This includes attendance at regional meetings of local authorities, particularly regarding environmental outcomes.
  3. Engagement with council Chief Executives and other central government agencies on major issues of strategic importance or national interest.
  4. Through our regular work programme. The Ministry will continue to engage with local government and communities regarding environmental outcomes including:
    • "Talk Environment" national roadshow
    • "Making Good Decisions" Councillor training programme
    • The Urban Design Protocol
    • Best practice and quality planning guidance.

Relationship between the Resource Management Act and the LGA

Under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) councils must protect the life supporting capacity of air, water, soils and ecosystems; generally by regulating the effects of human development on the environment. The Council and their communities decide how to protect the environment using rules in district and regional plans, which are legally binding documents.

The LTCCP does not override the provisions of RMA plans (or other statutory documents).

LTCCPs provide a vision and goals for councils and their communities to work towards. They cover all council activities from economic development initiatives to social service provisions such as libraries, and not just effects on the environment.

It is expected that community outcomes identified under the LGA will form the basis of the LTCCP vision that the Council will set out to achieve. All council activities including those required under other Acts, are expected to contribute to the achievement of community outcomes. This sort of alignment may take time. For example, district plans may not become aligned until they get reviewed 10 years after they became operative. An integrated monitoring strategy to monitor and report on all council activities under the various Acts will assist in integrated decision making.

The figure below shows how community outcomes and the LTCCP relate to and impact on other council strategies and policy documents, which include Regional Policy Statements and Regional and District Plans.

Figure: Influences on Environmental Management

See figure at its full size (including text description)

You can learn more about the relationship between the LGA and the RMA on the Quality Planning website.

Where to from here?

Click on the shapes or text below to continue.

Planning for and identifying community outcomes

Prioritising environmental issues

Implementing your LTCCP

Monitoring environmental outcomes Planning your LTCCP process Planning your LTCCP process Implementing your LTCCP Monitoring environmental outcomes