Councillors yesterday opted to delay notification of its air plan and instead complete two rounds of consultation, beginning in September, in a 6-5 vote.
They also approved unbudgeted spending for the additional consultation in the same vote.
At yesterday’s Otago Regional Council meeting in Queenstown, councillors expressed a range of views on air quality as it related to home heating; urban outdoor burning; air zones, that spelled out six priority areas; rural outdoor burning; "buffer zones" around the priority towns where outdoor burning would be restricted in winter; farming and industrial applications; and vehicle emissions.
Cr Gary Kelliher, who expressed concern with the plan at the meeting, said he was worried the other options in front of councillors were for consulting the public sooner rather than later.
His preference was to wait for the new national environmental standards for air quality, due next year, and then consult with the new standards in place.
He was hopeful there would be the ability to wait for the new central government regulations further down the track.
"I am definitely very concerned at some of the strategy proposals including rural burning and buffer zones.
"No science is informing those proposals."
Cr Kate Wilson, who also voted to delay notification of the plan said the council had put a lot of resources into its air quality work and prioritised it "because we’ve got an out-of-date plan".
However, she also said in her lifetime air quality had improved dramatically in Dunedin due to a vast improvement in technology.
Perhaps air quality was not the issue it was made out to be.
"I think there’s much worse problems that could be addressed in Otago.
"I’m just putting it out there that sometimes we don’t go for what is the low-hanging fruit to improve our environment overall."
Cr Alan Somerville voted against a delay and said if the council waited for the government "we’ll never do anything".
"There’s really important measures in here to look after the health of people in Otago and particularly the health of people in certain towns, because we know that that bad air, particularly in winter, particularly in those towns, actually causes a lot of illness."
Cr Michael Laws also voted against, saying for him the issue was vexed.
The Dunstan ward was probably the coldest populated region in New Zealand during winter, he said.
It suffered from the "infamous inversion layer" that affected air quality.
It also faced an increasing cost of electricity, which he blamed in part on the monopoly held by Aurora Energy.
"I’ve maintained ever since I’ve sat around this council table that it’s cold that will kill, not coal, and that we should take a sensible and ... ‘effective’ approach towards the way in which we manage air quality in the urban areas of Central."
