Planning of development in the Waitaki basin

Press, 19 January 1979, Page 10

Planning of development in the Waitaki basin

The chairman of the town planning committee of the Waitaid County Council, Mr T. M. F. TAYLOR, has made the following statement in answer to an editorial published in “The Press” on Friday, January 12, under the heading “Mackenzie Country development.”

The editorial appropriately suggested that a regional appraisal be made of the pattern of settlement in Mackenzie Country. The local authorities concerned are mindful of the need for regional planning in the area as an extension of their individual district scheme responsibilities and this has already been a real consideration. — As long ago as May. the two territorial local authorities, Mackenzie and Waitaki County Councils, responsible for planning m this area, formed a joint committee for that very purpose of co-ordinating planmng in the Mackenzie Country and Waitaki Basin. A W®"® 1 study was completed in July,

1977. and the main conclusions were incorporated into the district schemes of both counties, thereby giving rights of objection to interested persons and bodies. The whole exercise was an interesting example of effective regional planning by local governments in the absence of a separate regional level of government. The success of any “comprehensive. coordinated regional plan” — as described in the editorial — is largely dependent on the willingness of the central Government to recognise local and regional aspirations, but the past history of the activies of N.Z.E.D., the Ministry of Works and Development and the Lands and Survey Department gives

no cause for any confidence in such matters. It is unfortunate that the Minister of Local Government saw fit to upset the Local Government Commission soon after provisional regions had been announced and on the eve of their full consummation, thus delaying the establishment of a region by more than 12 months. Had that not been done, the Regional Council would now have been carrying out its function of planning for this very important area.

The present planning for the basin has been coordinated, however, by the two local authorities and is the best that can be auickly obtained in a regional context. This, indeed, is not the only example of local authorities in this area coordinating regional planning considerations. The Waimate, Waitaki and Mackenzie counties have a statutory coordinating planning committee for planning progress on the lower Waitaki, also.