Otago regional councillors have scrapped a proposed governance model and criticised staff’s use of "inflammatory" language, but adopted in principle an approach for developing a new land and water regional plan.
The plan, to be notified by the end of 2023, sets strategic policies, region-wide activity policies, and provisions for each of Otago’s five freshwater management units.
However, several councillors expressed concern over the use of the word "overallocation" in the report by Otago Regional Council freshwater and land team leader Tom De Pelsemaeker to the strategy and planning committee last week.
Cr Michael Laws took issue with the proposal for the plan’s governance group to not include all 12 councillors.
The report stated the governance group would consist of four councillors — two permanent and two revolving councillors based on a per freshwater management unit basis — and runaka representatives.
After a lengthy debate, council chairwoman Marian Hobbs sought to rein in her colleagues.
"This is a report about how we gather information. This is a report about how we write a plan.
"This is not about determining all the wording in here."
Council chief executive Sarah Gardner also expressed concern over the tenor of the meeting.
"We are going to have to address and make decisions on allocation and overallocation at some point.
"I just wonder why we’re trying to hide away from that."
Mr De Pelsemaeker’s report states the new plan must determine "where overallocation is occurring and outlining methods and timeframes for phasing out overallocation".
"Staff papers are public documents," Cr Laws said.
"As a consequence of that they have an import and an impact that suggests a particular viewpoint that is held by the Otago Regional Council in toto.
"You can’t just dismiss it and say ‘it’s just a staff document’."
Cr Gretchen Robertson called overallocation "a really crucial issue" that needed to be included in the council’s report, but she agreed with Crs Kate Wilson, Kevin Malcolm and Laws the language was inflammatory and that the current rules allowed for what was taken from waterways.
But the amount of water available through the deemed permits now in use would "well and truly" result in overallocation once new standards were in place, she said.
"Currently, the way the plan is written, it doesn’t have the notion of ‘overallocation’ in there," Mr De Pelsemaeker said.
"It does recognise that some catchments might be fully allocated.
"We need to set the allocation limit at a point where we’re still meeting our outcomes.
"And we need to review whether the current system in the plan does that."
Meanwhile, Cr Laws argued each councillor was "responsible for the region" as a whole.
"I’m involved as a councillor in the Dunstan ward in the Dunedin bus timetable, because that’s the way this council works," Cr Laws said.
"So, why on the most critical and crucial policy area that we confront over the next two and a-half years, would you decide that eight councillors won’t be involved in that? It doesn’t matter if it’s not my area. I should still be involved."
He said he did not want councillors as a group to be left with a mere "veto right at the end of it" but rather to be involved "at the ground floor".
