In our submission to the hearing commissioners, on behalf of the Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers, we conditionally endorsed the Proposed Planned Change 10 regarding nutrient management for Lake Rotorua, providing three conditions are met by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
First, the BOPRC establish catchment management and planning groups so that landowners can help manage implementation by catchment, directly supported by regional staff expert in measurement and mitigation. This investment in community capacity building would create local learning organisations and sustain PPC10 implementation, with nutrient rules needing to be enforced only by exception.
Second, the PPC10 is refined to integrate and co-manage nitrogen and phosphorous reductions by catchment. The main reason is that, while scientists research systems separately, they have to be managed by farmers as integrated systems, and further, balanced against other complex economic and environmental risks that are governed by the consenting process.
Third, the BOPRC research the economic impacts across different and mixed land use options, to both predict economic impacts and inform local farm conversions. The reports provided to date do not forecast the impact of PPC10 on Rotorua's GDP, on export earnings by farming sector, on rural land values relative to comparable land outside the district, on the saleability of rural properties, and on regional and district rates takes and therefore on urban rates rises. Most importantly, all of these forecasts must include the cost of borrowings.
REYNOLD MACPHERSON AND REX CHARLTON
Rotorua
