New booklet explains regional plans for farmers

Farmers – do you know what the rules are for damming water on your property under the Bay of Plenty’s regional plans? Or what requirements of the Regional Air Plan must be met when spraying agrichemicals?

Finding the answers to these questions has just been made a whole lot easier. There’s now a booklet that’s been especially designed to help you interpret Environment Bay of Plenty’s regional plans.

A Guide to Regional Plans – Farming Activities has been written for those in the dairying, sheep and beef farming industries. It covers a range of activities across all nine Bay of Plenty regional plans, providing helpful information about what activities are permitted or prohibited – or what requires resource consent.

It’s the first in a new series of booklets from the regional council, which highlight the most common activities in their regional plans. Information in the booklet ranges from how to make sure your farm dump is a permitted activity, to the rules that apply to discharging dairy farm effluent.

Principal compliance officer Steve Pickles hopes the booklet will improve the level of compliance with regional plans in the Bay of Plenty.

“We’ve also included tips on good practice, details about where to get more information, how to contact Environment Bay of Plenty and what to do if you do need a resource consent. We hope by having a simple reference guide, people will know what they can do and the number of people failing to comply with the plans will decrease. This should lead to an even better environment in the Bay of Plenty.”

The series was developed to make the regional plans more accessible to the people they affect. Next to be printed will be a guide to the reviewed On-site Effluent Treatment Plan, and following that a guide for orchardists.

If you would like a copy of A Guide to Regional Plans – Farming Activities, please contact Environment Bay of Plenty on 0800 ENV BOP (368 267) or by email at info@envbop.govt.nz. It is also available on the website www.envbop.govt.nz.

Note: Environment Bay of Plenty has nine regional plans that were prepared under the Resource Management Act. The plans aim to improve and maintain the quality of our region’s environmental resources. They set out rules and policies that govern the environmental effects of various activities.

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