Farmers fail to meet consent deadline

More than a quarter of the region's intensive farming operations which were required to lodge resource consent by the beginning of this year have not done so.

They now have another seven weeks to apply.

Horizons Regional Council has written to the operators - mainly around coastal Rangitikei - and is giving them until November 1 to lodge consent.

Of the 209 farms Horizons say needed to have lodged consent by January 1 this year, 131 have had consents granted and 21 are "in the process".

A further 38 applications are yet to be lodged but are "with consultants" and 19 remain "outstanding".

The One Plan, adopted in 2014, combined the regional council's policy statement, regional coastal plan and regional plan into one document and for the first time required intensive farming operations to have consent.

The Chronicle asked Horizons why no enforcement action had been taken against operations which had not applied for resource consent when required.

Its strategy and regulation manager Nic Peet said: "outstanding applications have been formally notified of the due date November 1 and we will consider if any further regulatory action is required after that date.

"Enforcement is always appropriate and measured in response to any non-compliance.

"Our focus continues to be getting the applicants through a robust process."

The council's Environment Committee a due to discuss the data to on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, consents continue to be issued largely on a discretionary basis meaning the operations are exceeding the nitrogen leaching limit set out in the council's One Plan.

Of the 21 intensive land use consents issued in the past two months only one has met the plan's targets (controlled consent).