Council makes 11 changes to lake nitrate rules

Mayor Steve Chadwick

Rotorua Lakes councillors were pleased to receive an update on a controversial regional council proposal to regulate nitrate levels in Lake Rotorua.

Mayor Steve Chadwick said it was important the council was involved in the process as it directly affected the lives of the district's ratepayers.

In December, Bay of Plenty Regional Council said it would delay any decisions on the controversial Rotorua lake nitrate rules until a comprehensive report outlining the science and social and economic impacts was completed.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the district council's strategy, policy and finance committee, regional council water policy manager Stephen Lamb explained that, after taking into account feed-back from landowners, 11 changes had been made to the original rules structure.

Those changes included a delay in the notification of the rules for further public consultation until May and the permitted threshold to be amended from properties under 2ha to properties under 10ha, excluding specified intensive land uses.

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Councillor Charles Sturt said it was a good sign the regional council had taken on board feedback from landowners as the proposed rules could severely affect their ability to use their land the way they wanted and smaller property owners could be unfairly burdened by overly restrictive rules.

However, councillor Karen Hunt said the possibility that landowners could change what they were doing on their land could have positive economic effects, as well as help clean up Lake Rotorua.