Community-led consultation capturing the vision for Mid Canterbury

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

A group of community leaders are encouraging people to have their say on the vision for the future of Mid Canterbury.

One of those leaders is Phil Everest who said the community-led Community Vision Workshop initiative is aiming to present a collective submission to Environment Canterbury.

Environment Canterbury has started an extended engagement process that will help shape the region’s future, revising plans which outline the rules for the use of land and water.

It is imperative that the community provides feedback to provide the governing body's direction, rather than sitting back and being dictated to, he said.

“We are taking the initiative and a positive approach of hosting several community meetings to collect feedback, collate it and submit it to ECan saying this is what our community would like.

“We are seeking a true community voice, from right across the spectrum, from urban and rural and all sectors, to present a vision for what we want it to look like in 50 years.

“It impacts everyone in this community, like how towns will dispose of wastewater, septic tanks or collect potable water and rurally around irrigation and land use consents."

ECan chairperson Peter Scott said information collected from the community is critical.

"As the regional regulator, we have a number of plans that need to be written, or updated, to reflect the directions set by government, meet the expectations of mana whenua and the wider community, and to respond to the impacts and challenges of climate change.”

That includes the Regional Policy Statement, which sets the direction for all other district and regional plans, he said.

Engagement with local government consultations has been declining in recent times, but the community-led initiative in Mid Canterbury is being well supported, he said.

ECan held a drop-in session in Ashburton on Tuesday, but more people attended a workshop in Ruapuna on Wednesday, Everest said.

They had hoped to have wrapped up the meetings by now but the level of interest means they have more next week, and could end up having held about 40 of them.

The plan is to create a collective submission and Everest said they are also encouraging people to submit directly to ECan by the end of August.

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