People are now able to see for themselves the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's proposed Regional Policy Statement which includes water quality, land use and environment provisions.

The Council is calling for public submissions on it draft Ten Year Plan 2012-2022 and believes releasing the RPS to the public will help inform the community on its policy direction.

The cut off period for submissions is Friday, April 27.

Councillor Raewyn Bennett, who chaired the proposed RPS Hearing Committee, believes this is the first time a council has taken the step of releasing this type of policy information early.

'While the RPS is very close to being finalised, we decided it was prudent to release this information early.

'We'd like people who make submissions on the draft Ten Year Plan to be informed on the policy context of this significant spending.”

Raewyn says the RPS Hearing Committee heard from 98 submitters for 17 days during September and October last year.

A total of 183 submissions and 57 further submissions were received on the proposed RPS.

'This has been a thorough process and we have heard from a lot of people, which is great as it demonstrates the significant interest there is in the community about helping Council to get policy direction right.

'The Regional Council has listened to the community's concerns around the water quality of the region's lakes, rivers and streams. Its decisions on the proposed Regional Policy Statement are intended to implement a framework for reducing nutrients entering catchments at risk, with a focus on Lake Rotorua in particular.”

She says water quality and land use proposals are included in the RPS, with strong references to the importance of soil as a resource.

Raewyn says water quality is to be enhanced to meet the values associated with the water's use and protection.

A variation to the Proposed RPS to make further changes to the coastal environment provisions will be considered in May before submissions are called for.

Those changes will see the landward boundary of the coastal environment identified and areas of outstanding natural character mapped.
'Releasing the coastal environment provisions early will enable the variation to the proposed RPS to give effect to the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 in light of the Council's decisions,” says Raewyn.
Key changes to the coastal environment provisions include the importance of coastal access for all and how ‘appropriate' coastal development may be decided, more detail about mangrove management and a new policy discouraging hard protection structures to reduce coastal hazard risks.

A new policy also provides for ports and their infrastructure.
The Hearing Committee's recommendations on the rest of the Proposed RPS will be presented to the Regional Council in June and the Council's decisions are expected to be notified in early August.