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Queenstown community meeting

13 October 2005

National Environmental Standards

Contaminated land

Is the government going to clean up small backyard landfills (e.g. ones used by schools)? Are there implications for water quality if there is leaching? What does the Contaminated Land National Environmental Standards involve?

General comments

  • The local government asked for National Environmental Standards but then did not agree with them. Is that what the Ministry experienced?
  • In Wanaka they have been putting in reticulated gas and diesel radiators and double glazing for new homes. Double glazing has become much more affordable these days and there has been a huge move to gas (particularly in the South Island). Are we leading to pressure on gas supply by encouraging conversion? There is no solid wood burning in new subdivisions now.
  • How do air sheds work? They are not set in Otago yet but would be in lots of little towns such as Alexandra, Arrowtown and Clyde
  • Will the Ministry of Education look after schools? For example, the Nelson air plan has this expectation.
  • The Warm Homes Project cannot understand why people would not want to change how they heat their homes. However, people are old fashioned and like open fires. What incentives are there for solar power? (Not many). The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) have subsidies for solar heating. However, there is no relationship or incentive to encourage low energy housing at the moment. Could we require better energy efficiency through the Building Act and Code (like Australia)? If not MFE? Whose responsibility is it?
  • How will retrofitting work? Will Warm Homes be used for old houses? We need to build better buildings with better insulation, heating and sustainability.
  • What about new developments relying on water running through Department of Conservation land? Will they be affected?
  • What about old medicines from farms? They are not covered by agrichemical collection. Or antibiotics from private houses? How do regional councils reach farmers regarding agrichemical collections? (Not very well reached in Otago).
  • Is there an incentive to use recyclable materials in industry?
  • We need a National Policy Statement for landscapes.

Resource Management Act

Resource consents

  • If assessment matters are not in the plan then the community does not have a chance to have a say in how resource consents will be assessed. However, if assessment matters are in the plan then they can detract from policies which are more important.
  • The process can be very expensive. Councils using consultants makes the process more expensive because they have profit motives and they cannot be voted out.

Policies and plans

  • How do we make 2nd generation plans more useful to pick up design issues? We need a 2nd generation planning workshop to come to Queenstown.
  • There are no examples of structure plans (that are sitting outside District Plans) so we need to include more in the guidance notes. The Quality Planning website guidance notes are good tools.
  • RMA plans need to be clearer and give more certainty to people (i.e. decision making should be less inconsistent).
  • Plans should be more prescriptive.

Capacity building

  • We need to be able to see how other councils are doing with regard to consistency and resourcing issues. We also need to share best practice examples with them. Urban groups are possibly looking at a National Policy Statement. More assistance is needed for smaller councils in dealing with some of these issues.
  • Decision makers are often in conflict and poor decisions are made as a result.
  • Council decision makers need to be better informed to make good and more consistent decisions.
  • The RMA was designed to be enabling but it is disabling people because it is being used in the wrong way.

General comments

  • There are national issues with RMA implementation and public frustration because of increasing bureaucracy.
  • The RMA process is too complex. The public is using consultants where a simpler process should enable the general public to be involved.
  • Pre hearing meetings for resource consents are useful in bringing out debate. The hearing process should be clearer and fairer to enable everyone to have their say.
  • Community Board involvement in notification and advertising (e.g. through fliers) is useful to engaging the community.
  • There is support for national standards and increased prescription within local schemes.
  • The RMA is very adversarial. Administrative provisions (affected parties and notification etc.) all act as barriers.
  • Non-statutory instruments such as design guidelines etc. should be promoted and used more by councils.
  • Expectations of developments and design are getting stricter but are not necessarily because of the local planning documents.
  • Design guides can help give everyone the same level of understanding.
  • The council should ensure that if a development is well designed it should be allowed to go ahead whilst protecting other areas that are not suitable for development.
  • People would like to know more about the timeline for changes. A timeline needs to be created to illustrate transitional provisions. It should be posted on the web.
  • How can you facilitate the move to efficient decision making?
  • How do new council powers apply? (Requirements versus guidance).
  • One may be able to address the pre-circulation of officer’s report through statutory amendments if it becomes a practice problem.
  • There should be a link to the Environment Court practice notes on MFE website as well as on the Quality Planning website.
  • Two new areas for RMA work are flooding and allocation.
  • People are looking forward to seeing how changes will improve practice.
  • The delay in getting a workable copy of the Act has been frustrating.

Waste

Packaging Accord

  • MFE should provide ‘Packaging Accord’ help for recycling glass.
  • The government should be more directive to producers. Are producers (e.g. supermarkets and fast food establishments) really accountable for packaging? It is not just users who should be responsible.
  • There needs to be a disincentive for excessive packaging (particularly plastic).

Waste management

  • We need to ensure that cars are suitable before importing them (e.g. new tyres etc.)
  • It is difficult to find space in Queenstown and Wanaka area for glass recycling. The costs of sending it to Auckland can be restrictive.
  • There are some local initiatives (e.g. a local contractor is recycling building foundations).
  • There is interest in tyre recycling in the Wanaka area.
  • Behaviour change is also required to reduce waste rather than relying on recycling.
  • Visitor education for recycling would be useful (e.g. in conjunction with the dump station we could guide and educate tourists about general recycling issues).

Product stewardship

  • Product stewardship is a big issue.
  • Responsibility needs to be shifted from community to producers (e.g. investigate system used in Germany).
  • What are the incentives for business to do better?
  • Manufacturers, retailers and users all need to be held accountable. The end user should not be saddled with the problem. There needs to be incentives or regulation.

Recycling, reuse and community

  • We need to promote sustainable industry and business initiatives for the recycling and re-use of products. Are there tax incentives or other initiatives to assist in developing new technologies for recycling or reuse?
  • Glass is a large component in the waste stream (by weight).
  • Large scale local opportunities for recycling glass are needed on the South Island.
  • Attitudes to glass and user behaviour need to be changed (e.g. in Wanaka you can take beer bottles back).
  • Central government needs to look at deposits on glass bottles.
  • Opportunities for the use of crushed glass in concrete need to be considered.
  • Work should be done on fostering consumer demand for environmental products and awareness at grass roots level. The general public needs to be educated about reducing waste and recycling and need to be made aware of the environmental impacts of not going so.

Waste minimisation

  • There needs to be a change of emphasis and funding from management of residual waste to reducing waste at the start of the chain (i.e. in the development phase).
  • Packaging needs to be reduced but should also use recyclable materials. The emphasis should be on supermarkets to reduce packaging this should in turn influence consumer awareness.
  • There are concerns about waste management and minimisation. Consumers need to be aware of the consequences. What happens when the Queenstown landfill is full?
  • The Waste Minimisation Bill needs to be looked at. This is a key issue as bigger steps should be taken towards reducing waste at the early stages (i.e. taking a proactive approach) rather than being reactive like we are at present.

Last updated: 17 September 2007