What actions can be taken against me?

Advisory notice – generally used to direct the recipient to take specified action.

Cost Recovery – it is Greater Wellington’s policy to recover costs incurred (time and materials).

Please explain letter – used to seek a written explanation about an illegal incident.

Retrospective Resource Consent – issued to legalise structures, maintenance activities or ongoing environmental effects. Sometimes used in conjunction with an infringement notice, enforcement order or prosecution.

Abatement notice – formal instruction issued to require someone to do something or stop doing something, to resolve an environmental problem and/or comply with regulatory requirements.

Infringement notice – issued for specified offences under the Resource Management Act 1991, and can impose a fine of $300 to $1,000.

Enforcement order – issued when non-compliance exists or when it is likely to be an adverse environmental effect. Failure to comply with an enforcement order results in court.

Prosecution – when significant non-compliance occurred.

What we consider before taking enforcement action

Before we decide on which enforcement option should be used, we consider a number of facts, such as:

• Significance of environmental effects
• Level of responsibility, attitude, history for the non-compliance
• Likelihood of incident reoccurring and its impacts

These types of considerations help us determine the best possible action to achieve a specific outcome. A desired outcome may be environmental remediation, to mitigate environmental effects, educate, deter others or punish.

Enforcement Decision Group

Where enforcement recommendations for an incident involve actions being taken against a person or organisation the decision is considered by a group of senior council officers and managers.