Taskforce hears farmer frustrations

Cutting red tape is the mantra of the Government’s Rules Reduction Taskforce, which came to hear what locals had to say at a meeting in Orewa this month.It’s a topic that people are passionate about and there was no shortage of stories of frustration and spiralling costs caused by local and central Government rules at the meeting on May 8, hosted by Mark Mitchell.

The Minister of Local Government, Paula Bennett, appointed the taskforce last October to listen to concerns about regulations that frustrate property owners and those who use property. The taskforce will make recommendations to the Government, following which, as taskforce member Tau Henare said, “the minister will take a hot knife to the rulebook”.

Around 30 people from all over the Hibiscus Coast and Rodney, including farmers, developers, business and property owners, attended the Orewa meeting to share their experiences with three members of the taskforce – Tau Henare, Mark Thomas and Chris Burke.

Mr Thomas said that the three main areas of concern identified so far are the Building Act, The Resource Management Act (RMA) and rules around Occupational Health and Safety.

Although there were plenty of concerns raised about Auckland Council regulations and bureaucracy in general, the RMA was the main source of frustration for those who spoke in Orewa.

Peter Wilson of Red Beach drew applause when he said that the costs for resource consent applications were ridiculous – an example was the charge of $10,000 levied when he applied for a consent with limited notification in order to subdivide his section.

Like many others at the meeting, he said it was not the RMA itself that was at fault, but the bureaucracy that has grown up around it.

“One of the principles of the Act is to enable people and communities to provide for their social and economic wellbeing, but councils have gone away from that principle,” he said.

‘Enable’ turned out to be the word of the night, with others commenting that Council planners, frightened to get anything wrong, would rather say ‘no’, rather than enable people to get on with work around their own property.

Tim Hosking of Wainui described the time when Council staff informed him that the six-inch effluent pipe he had installed on his property had to be replaced by a four-inch pipe. “It’s time to say ‘no’ to all those little Hitlers,” he said.

Terry Sinclair of Horncastle Homes said that his experience working with Manawatu District Council showed a potential way forward.

“Rules protect the public and create a nice environment to live in, but a more efficient process is needed,” he said. He said in his experience, a system where you can get agreement from neighbours for minor activities on your property works well.

“You talk with any affected neighbours and they sign a form if they are happy with what you are proposing. This is then passed to the planners for sign off.”

In closing the meeting, Mark Mitchell said that it was clear that “cost and time” were the main causes of frustration. Mr Thomas said those themes were coming through strongly nationwide, and are at the top of the taskforce’s list.