New West Coast plan draws 500 submissions

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

The Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) has drawn about 500 submissions.
Submissions opened on July 21 and formally closed on Friday after two extensions. Now the work begins.

The draft which will combine the West Coast's three district plans into one is acknowledged as a 'test case' for the Government's RMA reform.

Grey District Council district planner Michael McEnaney, who led the submission for the largest Coast council, said it had taken months for Grey alone, but the bigger process was only really beginning now submissions were in.

The draft had its "pros and cons" but a much bigger process to work through the submissions had to begin, McEnaney said.
"The hard part is starting, where everyone in the world gets to pull it apart and have their say."

They awaited with interest to see what "big players" like the Department of Conservation and Forest and Bird had to say.

"I think most people involved in the process are waiting with bated breath. The submissions now are going to shape where the plan is going to head. There's so much water under the bridge yet."

TTPP project manager Jo Armstrong said staff at the West Coast Regional Council had a big day yesterday counting and logging submissions into a format for summary.

The 500 or so submissions reflected a good level of interest given the region's comparatively low population, she said.

"While we got lots of submissions, it doesn't mean it's a bad plan."
All submissions would be summarised into topic areas, and presented to the TTPP Committee to consider, by about January.

"It's a huge amount to process and then summarise."

A 'resubmissions' period would then be called for those who had already made formal submissions. This would give registered submitters the opportunity to "see the lie of the land" reflected in the submissions to the plan.

It was likely the TTPP Committee would convene pre-hearing meetings to bring together common topics from the submissions.

A formal hearing panel was expected to be convened in the second half of 2023.

Armstrong said she expected it would be over a year before the committee received any recommendations from the hearing panel.

McEnaney said the bulk of his time since July had been spent writing the submission for Grey.

"It's 800 and something pages and I must have read it cover to cover three times in the last three months."

It had also involved significant time coordinating in-house and other local experts to address particular areas in the plan, as well as work-shopping elected members in a democratic approach to a whole plan submission from Grey.

McEnaney said he could not give a page number, as it was across a spreadsheet, but the Grey District contribution was "massive".

There had been issues as parts of the TTPP had also evolved since submissions opened -- with the later chapter on sites and areas of significance to Māori throwing implications for earlier chapters such as rural and subdivision.

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