That is the verdict of former Otago Regional Council member Gary Kelliher on the council's "new approach" to dealing with minimum flow plan changes on three Otago rivers.
Instead of dealing with the plan changes for the catchments of the Upper Cardrona, Manuherikia and Arrow Rivers individually, the council intends bringing them together under a single plan change, according to a press release yesterday from director of policy planning and resource management Tanya Winter.
"The plan change will set minimum flows for particular catchments and assist in evaluating the replacement of deemed water permits within the wider Clutha/Mata-au catchment," she said.
Deemed water permits are those issued decades ago for goldminers to take water, but are still used by irrigators, and are in the process of being converted to consents under the Resource Management Act.
The deadline for the new consents is 2021.
Ms Winter said bringing the plan changes together would "create some efficiency" and provide "greater certainty to the community and water users when they come to replace their deemed water permits".
However, Mr Kelliher told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the move "really surprises" him.
"It doesn't make sense to try to combine them together because they are all quite individual and you need to have very robust data to in effect go through a plan change process, and their timeframes seem very, very short."
Mr Kelliher said it appeared the reason the three particular rivers were being dealt with together was because they were the ones with the most heavily allocated water permits.
The council was under a "huge amount of pressure" from the community, Mr Kelliher said.
"They are hearing constantly that there is uncertainty as deemed permits come up for replacement and ... the unknowns around minimum flows is an impediment."
However, the process had to be "really robust", he said.
"They must be able to stand scrutiny and challenge and if the council goes in too quickly then it's highly likely what they are going in with will be severely challenged.
"I sincerely hope they can make this process work but I'll believe it when I see it."
No-one from the council was available to discuss the matter yesterday.
The council will meet with community members in Dunedin and Cromwell next month.
