A good consenting outcome requires an applicant to plan early, provide strong information and select suitable mitigations for their farm and environment, strategy and regulation general manager Hayley Fitchett, of Riverton, said.
Ms Fitchett was a speaker at a DairyNZ field day about the expansion of Birgit and Jon Pemberton’s dairy platform in Brydone.
As Mr Pemberton was an Environment Southland councillor, measures were put in place to manage any conflict of interest when considering his consent application, Ms Fitchett said.
A good consent was simple, practical, straightforward, aligned with a farm operation and delivered environmental improvements.
"That is the true north for me and my consenting team."
She encouraged people to engage with council staff early, including a free pre-application meeting.
"An effort at the front-end saves you time and money with us later."
The process to gain a consent for land-use change might seem overwhelming, but help was available at Environment Southland.
"We always welcome a chat and are always happy to come out on farm and have a listen to what you have to say."
A consent application should demonstrate how mitigations would deliver positive outcomes and include information to support it.
"Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and understanding the risks you can and can’t tolerate will help you make those early decisions."
Mitigations which were effective immediately could be more helpful than mitigations which took time to work, she said.
The consenting team aim to understand the risks of an activity and how they could be managed.
Better baseline information, provided a more straight forward consenting pathway, she said.
Although the central government had delayed the requirement for freshwater farm plans until November 27 next year, it remained a useful tool.
A freshwater farm plan was a practical way to provide evidence on the efficacy of mitigations and provide specifics of how contaminants enter and flow through an environment.
The inclusion of freshwater farm plan in a consent application reduced the amount of time council staff would need to work on it, which would reduce cost.
"It improves the certainty around your consent and gives you a simple, efficient, effective consent suite of conditions — that true north."
