Environmental complaints ‘whinging’ — Coast councillor

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

An increase in vexatious environmental complaints to the West Coast Regional Council has been dismissed by one councillor as 'whinging'.

The number and type of complaints reported back each month to the Resource Management Committee raised some comment last week when a staff reported noted 21 complaints or incidents between late April and May 26.

Planning and science manager Fiona Thomson said staff had also monitored 26 individual resource consents and investigated 21 "complaints'’.

Staff also made 12 mining compliance and bond release visits.

Committee chairperson Brett Cummings said the council seemed to be dealing with "an awful lot" of complaints at present.

Thomson said the compliance team was certainly "all hands on deck".

"It's definitely got very busy in the complaints space."

Councillor Allan Birchfield said the motive of some complainants could be characterised in the same way the leader of the Opposition had recently said - "we've become a nation of whingers and moaners".

Previous enforcement reports with "heaps of complaints" did not necessarily reflect well on the repeat complainants, he said.

"We're becoming quite pathetic actually."

Councillor Peter Haddock said vexatious complainants were certainly tying up staff time unnecessarily.

He referred to a previous example of someone's lunch rubbish left on a riverbank prompting an investigation by the council as to the point being made by Birchfield.

"A lot are unfounded and quite unfounded ... at the end of the day it costs the ratepayers."