Proposed Plan Change 1 to the Natural Resources Plan for the Wellington Region (Plan Change 1) (PDF 53 MB) is now open for public submissions. The closing date for submissions is 5.00pm 15 December 2023.
Plan Change 1 focuses on:
- Management of freshwater and coastal water within Whaitua Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Te Awarua-o-Porirua Whaitua to implement the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 within those whaitua
- Amendments to the air quality rules
- Amendments to the beds of lakes and rivers rules
- New sites with significant indigenous biodiversity values.
Plan Change 1 includes objectives and policies, rules and other methods to manage activities such as earthworks, stormwater discharges including from new urban development, wastewater discharges, and rural land use to achieve water quality and ecological health objectives within Whaitua Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Te Awarua-o-Porirua Whaitua.
Plan Change 1 also implements Whaitua recommendations for Te Awarua-o-Porirua and Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Support for submitters - Friend of Submitters
Like all planning documents, Plan Change 1 is complex to navigate and understand. If you would like some assistance, a ‘Friend of Submitters’ is available during the submission period to assist submitters. The Friend of Submitters is fully independent of Greater Wellington and has not been involved in developing Plan Change 1. You can contact them by sending an email to Friend.of.Submitter@gw.govt.nz
The Proposed Plan Change 1 documentation can also be viewed in person at:
- Greater Wellington Regional Council – Wellington Office, 100 Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington
- Greater Wellington Regional Council – Masterton Office, 34 Chapel Street, Masterton
- Public libraries throughout the region
To make a submission
The local authority in its own area and any person can make a submission on any of the proposed changes to the Natural Resources Plan, either online or in written form. Making a submission ensures your views will be considered and allows you to participate in the Proposed Plan Change 1 process if you wish.
However, if you could gain an advantage in trade competition through your submission, then you may do so only if you are directly affected by an effect of Proposed Plan Change 1 to the Natural Resources Plan that:
- Adversely affects the environment, and
- Does not relate to trade competition or the effects of trade competition.
The closing date for submissions is 5.00pm 15 December 2023.
The best way to make a submission is to use our online submission portal. Using this portal will ensure that we know which provision you’re providing feedback on and will make sure we know exactly what you’d like to change.
Alternatively, you may provide a written submission using our Submission Form.
Please email your submission to regionalplan@gw.govt.nz or by post to Environmental Policy, PO Box 11646, Manners St, Wellington 6142, ATT: Hearings Adviser. Please provide a contact email address with your submission to enable effective communication.
The portal and submission form follow the format required under the Resource Management Act 1991.
Note that under the RMA all submissions and accompanying data must be made available for public inspection. In order to achieve that, Greater Wellington will upload all submissions and accompanying data onto its website. For more information regarding this and your privacy please view our Privacy Statement.
More information about the submission process can be found in the Guide to Making a Submission (PDF 306 KB) .
Support for submitters - Friend of Submitters
Like all planning documents, Plan Change 1 is complex to navigate and understand. If you would like some assistance, a ‘Friend of Submitters’ is available during the submission period to assist submitters. The Friend of Submitters is fully independent of Greater Wellington and has not been involved in developing Plan Change 1. You can contact them by sending an email to Friend.of.Submitter@gw.govt.nz
What happens next?
- After receiving submissions, we’ll prepare a summary of decisions requested by submitters and give public notice of the availability of this summary and where the summary and submissions can be inspected
- There must be an opportunity for the following persons to make a further submission in support of, or in opposition to, the submissions already made:
- Any person representing a relevant aspect of the public interest
- Any person who has an interest in the proposal greater than the general public has
- The local authority itself;
What is a further submission?
The scope of a further submission is narrower than the first round of submissions. A further submission is a submission made in support of, or opposition to, another person or party’s submission point made in the first round of submissions.
Further submissions must be limited to those matters raised in submissions. It provides an opportunity to assess the effect an original submission may have on you, and to have your views considered by the Council alongside the original submission.
- If a person making a submission asks to be heard in support of his or her submission, a hearing must be held; and
- For the standard Part 1, Schedule 1 provisions, Greater Wellington Regional Council must give its decision on the provisions and matters raised in the submissions (including its reasons for accepting or rejecting submissions) and give public notice of its decision within two years of notifying Plan Change 1 and serve it on every person who made a submission at the same time; and
- For the freshwater planning instrument provisions, the Chief Freshwater Commissioner must convene a freshwater hearings panel to conduct the public hearing of submissions on the freshwater planning instrument provision and provide recommendations to Greater Wellington Regional Council on the freshwater planning instrument. Greater Wellington Regional Council may accept or reject any such recommendations and notify a decision on them.
- The appeal process after the hearing and decisions will depend on the planning process (ie, freshwater planning process or standard Part 1 Schedule 1 process) as set out below:
| For provisions following the freshwater planning process (Part 4 of Schedule 1 RMA): | For provisions following the standard process (Part 1 of the Schedule 1 RMA): |
A person who made a submission on a freshwater planning instrument provision:
|
Any person who made a submission on a standard Part 1, Schedule 1 provision has the right to appeal against the decision on Plan Change 1 to the Environment Court if, in relation to a provision or matter that is the subject of the appeal, the person referred to the provision or matter in the person’s submission on the Plan Change. |
The process for preparing Proposed Plan Change 1
Greater Wellington is satisfied that part of Proposed Plan Change 1 to the Natural Resources Plan is a ‘freshwater planning instrument’ and therefore subject to the freshwater planning process under Section 80A and Part 4 of Schedule 1 of the Resource Management Act (RMA). The Proposed Plan Change 1 to the Natural Resources Plan document identifies the new or amended provisions that form part of the ‘freshwater planning instrument’ using a freshwater symbol as follows:
The provisions that are part of the 'freshwater planning instrument' either give effect to the NPS-FM with respect to freshwater quality or quantity or otherwise relate directly to matters which impact freshwater quality or quantity. Amended or proposed Regional Coastal Plan provisions cannot be part of a freshwater planning instrument. The
Section 32 report
(PDF 4.6 MB)
justifies why each provision is part of the freshwater planning instrument.
The remaining Proposed Plan Change 1 to the Natural Resources Plan provisions that are not part of a 'freshwater planning instrument', that is, those provisions that are not identified by the freshwater symbol, will proceed through the standard process for preparing a regional plan change under Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the RMA.
Where are we in the change process?
Get in touch
- Phone:
- 0800 496 734
- Email:
- info@gw.govt.nz