Panel recommendations on the controversial proposed plan change 6A, which seeks to maintain or improve the region's water quality, will be presented to the council tomorrow, but the information and staff report were not released as part of the agenda for the meeting, as is normal practice for the local body.
Instead the agenda suggested the matter would be dealt with in private, saying, as was allowed under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, this was to ''maintain the effective conduct of public affairs though the protection of such members, employees and persons from improper pressure or harassment''.
Council chief executive Peter Bodeker said that was not the case.
''The whole 6A will be in open meeting.''
However, the decision of the hearing panel (councillors Duncan Butcher and David Shepherd, and independent commissioner Clive Geddes) would be presented to councillors and staff in a private workshop tomorrow morning.
It would then be discussed in public in the council meeting, and a briefing for media would be held afterwards.
It was a ''significant'' piece of work for the council and staff and it had attracted much public interest, he said.
''We wanted to manage the release of information to make sure councillors and staff had some time to interpret it.
''It's critical the whole organisation is singing from the same song sheet.''
The panel's recommendations follow a month-long hearing last year and nearly three months of deliberations.
Submitters criticised the plan change for having no certainty, detail or guidelines to give those affected by the changes an idea of the day-to-day practicalities of meeting the standards and, if they did not, when enforcement staff would arrive.
It was also criticised for failing to meet the intention of the national policy statement for freshwater management or the Resource Management Act.
Proposed water plan 6A
• Targets for good-quality water in Otago to ensure water suitable for contact recreation, fishing, stock drinking water and mahika kai.
• Removal of policy regarding the capacity of rivers to dilute contaminants because it is no longer acceptable to use rivers for disposing of pollution.
• Permit discharges that meet specified limits for nitrogen, phosphorus, E.coli and sediment.
• Provide a limited option where consents may be available for discharges that do not meet the discharge specified limits.
• Amendment of provisions for river and lake beds, and regionally significant wetlands.
New controls to prohibit discharges:
• That have an obvious adverse effect on water quality.
• From disturbed land to water where no practical steps are taken to avoid sediment runoff.
• To water from animal waste systems, silage storage or a composting process.
