Further delay in new West Coast ‘one plan’
By Brendon McMahon
, Local democracy reporter
The submission period for the Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) has been extended by a further fortnight after another glitch in sending letters to landowners.
TTPP chairman Rex Williams said a delay in sending out the correct legal advice to affected landowners meant the submissions period would be extended again.
Some landowners were wrongly informed from July that their land contained sites and areas of significance to Māori, when the proposed plan was publicly notified.
Submissions were originally until the end of September.
The TTPP committee subsequently agreed to extend submissions until October 28 after the issue of the incorrect letter first arose.
Williams said a further two weeks for submissions, until November 11, recognised a further delay in the "follow-up correspondence" to landowners.
The TTPP had also received feedback from the public at last weekend's AgFest highlighting the need for more time.
"Extending the submission period by an extra fortnight gives additional time for our communities, businesses and other stakeholders to get involved and provide their feedback.
"This is a plan for West Coasters and it just makes sense to do this," Williams said.
The extra time would be formally ratified once the new TTPP Committee was appointed in the next few weeks.
Williams said a delay in new letters of advice being sent out had emerged.
This was due to resourcing, and the complex task of ensuring multiple immediate legal effect categories were accounted for.
"There were seven different letters, and some properties had more than one letter associated with them.
"It's not as though the regional council has excess staff. It was a matter of dealing with a few hundred letters, each of which had to be checked carefully. It just took a bit longer than we thought."
Wrong legal notification letters from the TTPP to some landowners, from late July, were originally traced to "a software glitch" in the mapping system used by the West Coast Regional Council for the TTPP, Williams said.
This in turn generated incorrect legal notification letters to some landowners.
West Coast Regional Council chief executive Heather Mabin said the latest glitch had been "logistical".
It was no reflection on Ngāi Tahu, which had helped the TTPP ensure everything was correct before new letters were sent out, Mabin said.
Meanwhile, Williams encouraged West Coasters to get in touch about the proposed plan and how to make a submission.
"It's not always easy understanding how the proposed plan may affect you. We are here to answer your questions.
"We need your feedback to make the TTPP be able to work for you."
The proposed plan can be viewed at www.ttpp.nz...
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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62.2% Summer
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36.4% Winter
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1.5% Other - I'll share below
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
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