Federated Farmers Appeal Proposed Southland Water and Land Plan

Process to Date:

• Early consultation - 2015
• Proposed Water & Land Plan (pWLP) released
• Written submission process: Closed 1 August 2016 - approximately 900 submissions lodged
• Hearings: May – Oct 2017 - approximately 300 spoke to the hearing panel
• Decision version of the plan - 4th April 2018. Environment Southland Councillors accepted hearing panel recommendations
• Appeals closed 17th May 2018 

Key changes from the proposed to the decisions version of the plan 

• More specific direction in the policies and objectives
• Simplification of some of the rules
• Physiographic maps removed

On farm this means​:

• Existing use (last three years) can continue now without a consent
• New land use / practice needs to follow the rules now - forward dates apply to some of the rules
• Fully operative once the last of the appeals is concluded, then a six month grace period to apply for consents
   

Federated Farmers Key Appeal Points

Manapouri Power Scheme (Rule 52a)

Controlled activity status provided for Meridian’s take from the Waiau River (previous Restricted Discretionary) – this means that ES must grant the consent

• Two government aims clash: renewable energy and good water quality
• We want the opportunity to have all of the community (including Meridian) involved in the limit setting process
• Our appeal requests that future permits associated with Manapouri Power Scheme be considered as Restricted Discretionary

Physiographics (Policies 4 -12)​

• Maps removed from the plan and physiographics removed from the rules
• Policy 12a allows consideration of other information that might be more relevant than the physiographic science
• However, Policies 4 – 12 provide strong direction which discourages additional dairy farming or intensive winter grazing in 6 of 9 physiographic zones (3 zones were previously targeted)
• Our appeal
  • Point 3 removed from each of these policies which states "decision makes generally not granting resource consents for additional dairy farming of cows or additional intensive winter grazing where contaminant losses will increase as a result of the proposed activity"

​Farming and intensive winter grazing (Rule 20)

• Permitted intensive winter grazing on 15% of the landholding or 100ha (whichever is less) 
• Our appeal
  • the area limitation winter grazing should be either 15% or up to 100ha, removing the words "whichever is the lessor"
  • Removing 3B to 3E which include rules on grazing should be conducted

Cultivation (Rule 25)

• 5m setback, only allowed one cultivation every 5 years regardless of purpose of cultivation (so regrassing only)
• No cultivation on land exceeding 20 degree slope (avg across any 20m distance)
• Restricted discretionary consent required if outside the above – focussed on adverse effects of contaminants from critical source areas, mitigations, and monitoring of mitigations
• Cultivation above 800m is non-complying
• Our appeal:
  • New definition for Minimum Tillage Cultivation “a tillage method that does not turn the soil over.
  • Setback from waterways is 3 metres (instead of 5 metres)
  • Increase of permitted slope for cultivation to 30 degrees (instead of 20 degrees)

Feed Pads and Feed Lots (Rule 35a)

• ​​Inclusion of a sacrifice paddock is unclear (including to ES)
• Several limitations to a permitted feed pad: 
  • max 120 adult cattle or 250 adult deer
  • max of 3 continuous months on feed pad
  • feed pad not located within 50m of another feed pad on same property
• Our appeal
  • Maximum mob size limit be deleted
  • Allow for up to 6 months of continuous use of the feedlot/feedpad
  • No limit on proximity to another feedlot/feedpad on the same holding