| Environment Canterbury Canterbury Regional Council |
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| Country: | New Zealand |
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| Regional Council | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Environment Canterbury |
| Chair: | Sir Kerry Burke |
| Population: | 533,200 June 2006 estimate [1] |
| Land Area: | 44,638km² |
| Website: | http://www.ecan.govt.nz |
| Cities and Towns | |
| Cities: | Christchurch, Timaru |
| Towns: | Kaikoura, Ashburton, Leeston, Rolleston, Fairlie, Temuka, Methven, Rakaia, Geraldine, Rangiora, Oxford |
| Constituent Territorial Authorities | |
| Names: | Christchurch Hurunui District Kaikoura District Ashburton District Timaru District Mackenzie District Selwyn District Waimate District Waimakariri District Waitaki District (part) |
| Websites: | http://www.ccc.govt.nz http://www.hurunuidc.govt.nz http://www.kaikoura.govt.nz http://www.ashburtondc.govt.nz http://www.timaru.govt.nz http://www.mackenzie.govt.nz http://www.selwyn.govt.nz http://www.waimatedc.govt.nz http://www.waimakariri.govt.nz http://www.waitaki.govt.nz |
Canterbury Regional Council is the regional council for Canterbury, the largest region in the South Island of New Zealand. It is part of New Zealand's structure of local government. It uses the promotional name Environment Canterbury, frequently abbreviated to 'ECan'.[1]
Its main office is in Christchurch with smaller offices in Timaru and Kaikoura. The area of its jurisdiction consists of all the river catchments on the east coast of the South Island from the Clarence River, north of Kaikoura, to the Waitaki River, in South Canterbury.[2] The region includes the Canterbury Plains, north and south Canterbury, the major braided rivers of the South Island, (the Waimakariri River, the Rakaia River and the Rangitata River) the Mackenzie Basin and the Waitaki River.
The Canterbury Regional Council is responsible for a wide variety of functions including public passenger transport, regional biosecurity, river engineering, environmental monitoring and investigations, regional policy and planning and for considering applications for certain resource consents - land use consents (including beds of waterbodies), coastal permits, water permits, and discharge permits. Canterbury Regional Council has strategic responsibilities for air, water and transport.[3]
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Canterbury Regional Council is governed by 14 elected councillors who are elected on a first-past-the-post basis from eight regional constituencies.[4]
On 24 October 2007, Sir Kerry Burke was again elected the chairperson by the inaugural meeting of the newly elected council. The vote was initially tied between Burke and Alec Neill. Sir Kerry Burke has been an elected councillor for three terms and has been the Chairman for the previous three-year term.[5]
In the October 2007 local government elections, four new regional councillors were elected on platforms promoting better management of water resources and opposition to the Central Plains Water scheme.[6] The four are: David Sutherland and Rik Tindall, who stood as "Save Our Water"[7] candidates, and independent candidates Jane Demeter[8] and Eugenie Sage.
The other councillors are Mark Oldfield, Bronwen Murray (South Canterbury Constituency), Ross Little, Jo Kane, (North Canterbury), Carole Evans (Christchurch North), Pat Harrow, Alec Neill (Christchurch West), and Bob Kirk and Sir Kerry Burke (Christchurch South).[9]
Richard Budd, a long-serving regional councillor, lost the Christchurch East ward to Sutherland and Tindall.[10]
Dr. Bryan Jenkins has been the chief executive since June 2003.[11] Dr Jenkin's contract was for a term of five years. Canterbury Regional Council was required by the Local Government Act 2002 to have a contestable process with external applicants in order for Dr Jenkins to apply for another five year term.[12] On 17 March 2008, Sir Kerry Burke released a media statement that Dr Jenkins had been reappointed for a further term of five years.[13]
The Canterbury Regional Policy Statement became operative in 1998.[14] In 2006, a mandatory 10-year review of the Regional Policy Statement commenced.[15]
Canterbury has the following 'operative' regional plans.
The Canterbury Regional Council Transitional Regional Plan (October 1991), which is a collection of rules and bylaws predating the Resource Management Act 1991, is still an operative plan for most of the region, except the Waitaki catchment and the Kaikoura area. [16]
The Proposed Natural Resources Regional Plan (PNRRP)has proceeded in two stages. Chapters 1 to 3 (Overview, Ngai Tahu and Air Quality) were publicly notified in June 2002. Chapters 4-8 were publicly notified in July 2004. Chapters 1 to 3 were decided on in September 2007 and some aspects of this large and detailed plan have been appealed to the Environment Court. It is likely that many of the contentious aspects of chapters 4-8 (e.g., water allocation and water quality) of this plan will not be finalised until the inevitable appeals to the Environment Court are finally determined. Hearings into Chapters 4-8 started in late 2007 and are scheduled to continue throughout 2008.[17]
There are also four Water Conservation Orders (WCOs) that apply in Canterbury: the Rakaia River WCO, the Lake Ellesmere (Te Waihora) WCO, the Rangitata WCO and the Ahuriri River WCO [2].
Canterbury Regional Council issues and supervises the most resource consents under the Resource Management Act 1991 of any of the 16 regional councils in New Zealand. In the year ended 30 June 2006, Environment Canterbury processed 3,381 applications, more than double the number processed by any other consent authority (Environment Waikato had the next highest number; 1,384 applications in 2006).[18] By January 2005, Canterbury Regional Council had issued over 14,000 resource consents.[19] The conditions of individual consents can be viewed on line by using the six-digit "CRC" number.[20]
In October 2004, Canterbury Regional Council had a 'backlog' of unprocessed applications due largely to the notification of applications to take groundwater in highly allocated groundwater zones.[21]
The 'backlog' or number of applications for consents being processed, is recorded daily on the Environment Canterbury web site. The consistent trend from March 2007 to December 2008 is an increase.[22] The sharp increase in applications in June 2007 was due to the review of 400 existing resource consents in the Rakaia-Selwyn groundwater allocation zone.[23]
Canterbury Regional Council received the lowest rating given by rural ratepayers in a Federated Farmers survey on local authorities.[24]
The grade took into account the council's level of approachability, degree of bias, provision of roads, value for money, and implementation of the RMA.[25]
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