Hawke's Bay Regional Council encourages farmers to submit consent applications

Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway said farmers are focused on "surviving" and keeping stock fed amid the ongoing drought. Photo / Warren Buckland

Drought-stricken Hawke's Bay farmers who haven't met a regional council consent deadline are being told to do so within two weeks.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council group manager of regulation Liz Lambert thanked the Tukituki catchment landowners who were able to meet the May 31 deadline.

"We know this is not an ideal time to be carrying out regulation of this kind, and that's why we are trying to make this process as straightforward as possible," she said.

"There is still a window of time for landowners to submit their consent applications. We encourage those who haven't submitted a pre-application or a full consent, to do this in the next two weeks."

Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway thanked the council for taking a pragmatic approach, but said farmers focused on "surviving day to day" with the ongoing drought.

"Everyone has been that busy trying to keep their stock fed and redoing plans every few days on how they can get through the dry," he said.

"It has kept everyone pretty busy and made it hard to focus on anything else. Sitting in front of the computer doing more paperwork is not what most farmers would consider an ideal afternoon at the moment."

Council put together an interim pre-application process in an attempt to help farmers meet the deadline, which was "broadly well received by the rural community", Lambert said.

The interim process takes about 30 minutes to complete and will be deemed as a placeholder for a consent, according to HBRC.

Galloway said Federated Farmers and the Tuki Tuki Caucus are working with council to implement a process to make it easier and cheaper for all.

"We haven't been able to get out there and talk to farmers like we wanted during the Covid-19 lockdown and explain everything," he said.

"That has made it a lot harder to get the message out and help people understand what is happening. But it does need to be done, so we do encourage farmers to do it."

In some individual cases, landowners may not need a consent if they have made changes to their production system.

"We have engaged with some farmers who were surprised to learn that they didn't need a consent, because they have reduced their nitrogen leaching," Lambert said.

"We won't know about this or be able to help unless people contact us so do get in touch."

Landowners requiring advice are encouraged to contact senior regulatory adviser Kate Proctor.