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The home fires can keep burning – for now.
Auckland Council has put its plan to ban domestic open fires and phase out pre-2005 wood burners on hold awaiting a Government review of air quality regulations. Currently there is no time frame as to if, or when, this review may take place.
Council’s Regulatory and Bylaws Committee resolved to put the introduction of its proposed Air Quality bylaw on hold at its April 1 meeting.
In a statement, Council says that it will not introduce any further regulations until it is satisfied that they are appropriate for Auckland and are a reasonable response to the national regulations.
The bylaw is key to Council meeting its statutory obligations under the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Air Quality) Regulations 2004 to reduce the level of particulate air pollution by December 2016 but Cr John Watson, who sits on the committee, says he is glad to see it put on hold.
“Before any bylaw is introduced there has to be the assurance that people in the community are not going to be faced with costs they can’t afford, or worse, not being able to heat their homes during winter,” Cr Watson says.
He says that a better tactic would be to emulate Environment Canterbury’s Clean Heat project, which provided incentives and assistance to homeowners using old, inefficient and polluting solid fuel appliances to change to cleaner forms of heating.
“It was a voluntary project that provided financial incentives and options to people. I would like to see a similar project in Auckland, with Government assistance, that encouraged people to change their heating, if they choose to and when they see the advantages of doing so themselves. It was a success in Christchurch and could work here as well,” he says.
The Air Quality bylaw has been in the wind since 2012, and was designed to reduce the damaging emissions from domestic open fires – the largest contributor of particulate air pollution in Auckland in winter (72 percent of all small particle emissions in the Auckland winter, according to Council’s figures).
It is expected that the matter will come before the Regulatory and Bylaws Committee again in June, when appropriate recommendations suitable for Auckland will be considered.
