More than half of the public responses to the draft Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP) had a focus on farming and forestry activities, Otago Regional Council (ORC) said. 

The LWRP is a tool designed to help protect the region’s lakes and rivers and 573 people gave feedback during the latest consultation round.

ORC manager policy and planning Fleur Matthews said she was “extremely pleased” with the amount of feedback.

Feedback came from people at 12 public drop-in sessions held throughout Otago and two online meetings.

These attracted more than 370 people, Fleur said.

“There were also four targeted stakeholder sessions for specific interest groups: from the farming, forestry, territorial authorities, and environmental sectors,” she said.

In addition to farming and forestry, other topics that received “substantial” amounts of feedback were water allocation, earthworks, damming and discharges of agrichemicals.

ORC was directed to begin the process for a new land and water regional plan in 2019 when the Minister for the Environment told the regional council it could do better to manage Otago's lakes.

The latest feedback round was the third to take place for the LWRP.

In June next year the council will be asked to approve the final LWRP for public notification.

The final LWRP will give new, comprehensive direction for managing land and water resources in the region. 

It will replace an outdated ORC planning framework that is no longer fit for purpose. 

PHOTO: Wānaka App