Letters to the Editor: Praise for new forestry regulations

New forestry regulations are in response to the 10,000 Tairawhiti people who petitioned then Forestry Minister Stuart Nash after Cyclone Gabrielle struck, says a letter writer.

The Government has just announced new regulations to control the forestry industry.

The National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (both carbon forestry and commercial forestry) will come into force in November.

They are designed to protect the lives and livelihood of thousands of people impacted by decades of lax laws governing the forestry industry.

Maximum fines - currently a mere “slap-on-the-wrist” $600,000 - will increase to $10 million, and forestry companies will no longer be able to minimise their losses by using insurance to cover their fines.

Under the new regulations, all slash has to be removed as part of the harvesting process.

These regulations are in response to the 10,000 Tairawhiti people who petitioned then Forestry Minister Stuart Nash after Cyclone Gabrielle struck the East Coast, causing long-lasting damage.

This is justice at last for all the farmers and townspeople who have suffered for decades thanks to shortcuts taken by forestry companies.

Full credit to the staff at the Ministry for Forestry – hopefully, you will not be forced to join the ranks of the unemployed if there’s a change of government on October 14.

Pauline Doyle

Napier

Housing development should go ahead

I was dismayed to read recently the decision of the Napier City Council to pull out of a proposed sale of the 12-hectare block of land on Prebensen Drive to Kāinga Ora who proposed developing it into a mixed residential development including some 240 houses about a third of which were to be social housing.

The initial in principle decision was taken by council in December 2021 with the public excluded.

The exclusion of the public was the basis of an application to the High Court in Napier for a judicial review of the council’s decision by the Parkland Resident’s Association.

It was heartening to hear the statement by association member Sandi Boydon that the legal challenge had not been aimed at obstructing the sale but rather their understandable concerns that the decision was made without public consultation and without the council having regard for the views of its communities in accordance with the council’s own significance and engagement policies, along with a number of other concerns.

The council’s decision was made “against the backdrop of the devastating damage and disruption caused by Cyclone Gabrielle which is placing significant and ongoing pressure on council’s financial and staffing resources” and that it “had formed the view that it should prioritise the immediate social welfare and wellbeing of the Napier community, rather than continuing with the litigation before the High Court.”

Further, the council stated that it had “a number of other key projects to progress that are demanding significant resources which will directly support the cyclone recovery”.

The great irony is of course that the proposed development by Kāinga Ora would have a huge positive impact on the economic and social wellbeing of Napier. Having over 200 families in warm dry housing against a background of a housing shortage and as a consequence, an increase in social deprivation cries out for a sensible solution.

Surely the way forward is simply to restart the process and engage with the Parkland community. I do not accept that the resources needed for this process would compromise other projects.

Not to do so would show a lack of commitment of the council’s social obligations to the Napier community. It would be a tragedy if this golden opportunity for Napier City Council to make a material social impact is lost or significantly delayed.

The need for action is urgent.

John Palairet

Napier