Drought and Covid-19 restrictions are having a major impact on farmers affected by planned changes in the Tukituki catchment and Hawke's Bay Regional Council is offering to help them meet an important resouce consent deadline on May 31.
Group manager of regulation, Liz Lambert, says the deadline still stands but landowners do not have to submit a full resource consent immediately. "Instead, we ask you to fill in a minimum amount of information on an application form [and complete] the rest of the resource consent application in a few months."
She said service providers can't go on to farms to assess consents and sub-catchment meetings aren't being held.
"The goal is to ensure that we collectively meet the deadline in the plan in the most straightforward way possible."
The regional council is asking landowners who have a complete resource consent application to send it in by May 31, and for others to provide what they can. The Tukituki Catchment Plan Change 6 aims to sustainably manage and improve the catchment's freshwater and improve its water quality. It's a catchment-specific change to the Hawke's Bay Regional Resource Management Plan and will affect irrigation management.
