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What is Proposed Plan Change 1?

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The proposed plan change: background and legislation

Healthy Rivers/Wai Ora: Proposed Waikato Regional Plan Change 1 is our opportunity to protect the environment and ensure that what we value as a community is here for future generations.

Developed alongside iwi and key stakeholders, the proposed plan change is one of the largest plan changes of its kind in New Zealand, applying to approximately 10,000 properties and covering a land area of 1.1M hectares within the Waikato and Waipā river catchments.

The proposed plan seeks to reduce the amount of contaminants entering into the Waikato and Waipā catchments to achieve our Vision and Strategy/Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato.

It also gives effect to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2014. 

Notification of Proposed Plan Change 1

On 15 September 2016 Council passed a resolution to notify Proposed PC1. Proposed PC1 was subsequently publicly notified on 22 October 2016. Public notice was given on 3 December 2016 of the Proposed Waikato Regional Plan Change 1 – Waikato and Waipa River Catchments being withdrawn in part.

The following links are to the notification version of the Proposed Plan Change 1, dated October 2016. This version of the Proposed Plan Change has been superseded.

Proposed Plan change 1 documents as notified (October 2016):

Notification of Variation 1

On 10 April 2018, council notified Variation 1 to Proposed Plan Change 1 for public submissions.

The following links are to the notification version of the Variation 1 to Proposed Plan Change 1, dated April 2018. This version of the Proposed Plan Change has been superseded.

Variation 1 to Proposed Plan change 1 documents as notified (October 2016):

Developing the plan change

The plan change has been developed using an innovative collaborative process working alongside our iwi partners. Those who are most affected by the changes have been represented by a Collaborative Stakeholders Group (CSG), and they've been at the table developing the policy and providing input and feedback from their communities and sectors.

Want to know more about the CSG and how they developed the policy? Read about its members and workshops here.

The Collaborative Stakeholder Group worked closely with a Technical Advisory Group, an impartial, advisory group of specialists who provided technical information to them and the project steering group. They collated, analysed, summarised and presented environmental, social, cultural and economic information about the rivers and the consequences of different land management scenarios. 

You can read more about the Technical Advisory Group here.