Council encourages public input into environmental enforcement

REPORT IT: A burn-off in Waipukurau two weeks ago was alerted to authorities by concerned residents, feedback the regional council is encouraging. Photo / File

The role of the public in alerting the Hawke's Bay Regional Council (HBRC) and councillors about people they suspect are breaching environmental regulations was discussed at a council committee meeting this morning.

The environment and services committee adopted a revised enforcement policy document that set out how people could make complaints, as well as the process the council followed to address any concerns.

The document noted that HBRC's intent was to encourage positive behaviour change in the first instance, and to ensure the highest levels of compliance.

It also laid out how the public could report any suspected breaches through the pollution hotline, and discussion turned to the importance of the public feeling they could also tell councillors themselves.

Committee chairman Tom Belford cited a recent instance where someone sent him photos of a truck dumping concrete into the Clive River, which he passed along to council officers, and also posted on his Bay Buzz magazine's Facebook page.

He said it was important that people felt they had an avenue to bring things to council, beyond the 0800 pollution hotline number, and that he would have liked the document to be more encouraging that this was part of a citizen's role.

He said the Facebook post had received 45,000 views since put online on April 4, and many comments.

"Some were critical of the regional council, although the activity had been addressed by the pollution response team, who instructed the driver to stop the dumping and would be following up with further action.

"Not everybody out there is convinced we are holier than thou – the importance of this policy is to speak to the community to show we are serious and welcome citizens to come forward who think they should be playing watchdog role over this council," he said.

"These little episodes bring into question our role in the community, who are left wondering if we did anything – it affects our reputation – I would like to see something more invitational to the public to play a part in monitoring our behaviour."

Councillor Rick Barker said he saw the document as a means of community engagement and an outline of how the council responded to complaints.

"If we want to encourage people to be environmental vigilantes that's a different thing."

Mr Belford said he wanted people to be vigilant.

"I want council on record to the public that we welcome this kind of input."

Council chairman Rex Graham said it was not possible to have council staff out checking on everything all the time, that the council needed people's assistance.

"If they see serious polluting, they need to feel they are welcome to ring up a number and have no personal comeback.

"We need to have activists in the community helping us achieve our obligations."

Mr Barker said it was good to have a clear enforcement policy, but if people were encouraged to report things, a lot of resources would need to put in place so that fast action could be taken.

"It will require a lot of thinking and investment, which I would support as well, this is the beginning of the debate."

Councillor Paul Bailey said the document was the start of a journey of the public being more involved.

"It will make it easier to explain to public if we can refer to this document – it's a useful first step but we have to remain vigilant that we are not seen as not doing anything."

Compliance manager Wayne Wright said the updated policy helped to give the public assurance of the council's course of action and decision-making process when investigating and enforcing environmental non-compliance.

"This is a further step toward a stronger regulatory position being taken by the regional council.

"The policy also now reflects the council's intent to encourage positive behaviour change and to ensure the highest levels of compliance on environmental matters."

The policy document would be available on the council website.