Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council supports the sustainable development of the region through managing the effects of people's use of freshwater, geothermal, land, air and coastal resources.

To do this it uses a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory tools to manage the environmental impacts of activities, including rules and resource consents developed under the Resource Management Act. As part of this work the regional council monitors compliance, with more than 5400 resource consents held across the region.

We need to do this because significant non-compliance can lead to environmental damage. It is not primarily about enforcement, although this may be an outcome – but is more about encouraging good use of environmental resources.

The monitoring process also raises awareness with consent holders and landowners about the level of environmental management that is required. It allows early detection of activities that may be harming the environment so they can be acted upon.

The monitoring process gives assurance to communities that conditions around resource use are being met; and it helps assessment of long-term trends in resource use enabling informed decisions to be made.

During the 2014/2015 year, staff assessed 40 per cent of these consents – totalling more than 2680 assessments – and found that, overall 80 per cent of consents achieved full compliance.

Of those 20 per cent that were non-compliant, only eight per cent of all assessments found high risk or major non-compliance.

Council reports compliance geographically – in the Tauranga Harbour catchment full compliance was at 86 per cent, while in the Kaituna/Maketu/Pongakawa/Waitahanui catchment full compliance reached 79 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, these catchments accounted for the bulk of the earthworks and agricultural/horticultural water use consents, half of the small scale industrial consents, and one-third of the dairy effluent consents.

If you would like more information on the regional council or any other issue, contact me on neesj@xtra.co.nz or ring me on 07 579 5150.