Activity Group: Environmental Management The Wairau/Awatere Resource Management Plan (WARMP) Emerging Issues and Expected Changes This is an operative combined Regional Plan, Regional Coastal Plan and District Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan Plan that provides the framework by which the natural and physical resources of the Wairau and Awatere areas of Marlborough are to be managed. The proposed MEP attracted 1,322 submissions. Those submissions are currently in the process of being heard in accordance with the First Schedule of the RMA. The Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan (MEP) The task of hearing submissions and making decisions on the proposed MEP is The Council completed a review of the effectiveness and efficiency of the being undertaken by an appointed panel of accredited hearing commissioners, operative resource management framework in 2016. As a result the Proposed consisting of four elected Councillors and three independent commissioners. The Marlborough Environment Plan (MEP) was notified for public submissions in June hearings commenced in November 2017 and are scheduled to be completed by 2016. The proposed MEP combines the Regional Policy Statement, Regional December 2018. Coastal Plan, regional plan and district plan provisions into a single resource management planning document for Marlborough. Decisions on the proposed MEP will be publicly notified in 2019. Any submitter to the proposed MEP can appeal the Council’s decision to the Environmental Court. The RPS, the operative resource management plans and the proposed MEP Depending on the number and nature of the appeals, resolving the appeals may identify resource management issues, establish objectives for addressing these be a significant priority for the Environmental Policy Activity for the first half of this issues, provide policies for achieving the objectives and identify regulatory and LTP. non-regulatory methods for implementing the policies. The provisions collectively seek to enable resource use, but in a manner that sustains the potential of natural Once appeals are resolved, the MEP can be made operative. This means that the and physical resources to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future current operative framework consisting of the Marlborough Regional Policy generations, safeguards the life supporting capacity of air, water, soil and Statement, the Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan and the ecosystems and avoids, remedies or sufficiently mitigates adverse effects. Wairau/Awatere Resource Management Plan will cease to have effect. This will, in turn, simplify the task of other activities, particularly Resource Consents and Marlborough’s social and economic well-being relies on the use, development and Environmental Protection. protection of natural and physical resources. The resource management framework described above plays an important role in strategically guiding this Review of Aquaculture Provisions use, development and protection. In particular, provisions in this document enable appropriate resource use through permitted activity rules and through the In notifying the proposed MEP, Council decided not to notify marine farming allocation of public resources (such as water and coastal space). provisions, opting instead to continue the review process. This review commenced in March 2017 and the Council is being assisted by an Aquaculture Review Asset Description Working Group consisting of industry members, members of the local community and central government agencies. The work of the Group may result in the Although not an asset in the conventional sense, the RPS, MSRMP, WARMP and notification of a Variation to the MEP in 2018. The First Schedule process would proposed MEP are assets the Council and the community rely on to guide then run for approximately the following two years. development within Marlborough. They identify the status of resource use activities occurring within the environment (ie whether an activity requires a Central Government Initiatives resource consent), allocate public resources (such as water and coastal space) and contain policies to guide the determination of resource consent applications. Government initiatives (such as legislative change or the introduction of national policy statements or national environmental standards) can influence the nature, Given the above, it is important that the currency and accuracy of the RPS, scope and timing of the Environmental Policy work programme. In particular, the MSRMP and WARMP are maintained at all times. The Environmental Policy Team Council is required to give effect to the provisions of national policy statements, has a Quality Management System to ensure that the correct version of the plans while the provisions of the Council’s resource management framework cannot are being used internally and are available externally. duplicate or conflict with national environmental standards. 2018-2028 Long Term Plan Page 110