Draft Northland Regional Plan
Federated Farmers gave lengthy feedback to the Regional Council on the draft Regional Plan in late 2016. This plan is important governs how Northland’s water, coast and air will be managed in the future. Overall, the draft plan is fairly pragmatic and the Council has done a good job of consulting farmers and industry. FF was therefore able to generally support the direction the Plan is heading in. We did express concern about the costs and practicalities of some rules, including the draft stock exclusion rules (in some catchments these are stricter than the proposed new national stock exclusion regulations), farm waste water storage requirements, offal/silage pit requirements. We also queried the science behind some of the setback distances from waterways. The Regional Council expects to release the new Plan for formal consultation later this year. For more, see the full feedback