Commissioners could be paid $350,000 for Environment Plan work in Marlborough

Monday, 13 March 2017

Agriculture is included in the draft Marlborough Environment Plan.

Marlborough will fork out hundreds of thousands to pay for three independent commissioners to help shape the region's environmental future.

Hearings begin this August for the council's draft Environment Plan, which will determine Marlborough's environmental policies for the next 20 years.

Aquaculture is being worked on separately after concerns were raised by the marine farming industry.

With 1249 written submissions received the hearings will be a lengthy process, and are estimated to take more than four months.

Three commissioners will be paid at least $80 an hour for their time, and their salaries, travel and accommodation costs could cost up to $350,000 altogether.

Hearings for the Marlborough Environment plan will go on for at least four months.

* Marlborough Environment Plan ready for public scrutiny

* Marlborough District Council risks aquaculture battle over environment plan**

The Marlborough District Council agreed to special one-off funding of up to $350,000 for the upcoming financial year at a full council meeting on March 2.

Four councillors will sit on the panel with the commissioners, Laressa Shenfield, Trevor Hook, David Oddie and Jamie Arbuckle.

Hook said he thought the council would not have any difficulty finding three suitable commissioners from within Marlborough.

'There are a lot of well-qualified people out there,' he said.

The 1200-page Environment Plan brings together three existing council plans, and covers agriculture and forestry. An aquaculture chapter is being worked through separately, after industry representatives raised concerns with the council.

Submissions will be summarised and released to the public before the hearing process begins.

Council environmental policy manager Pere Hawe prepared a report for the council saying the hearings alone would take a minimum of 17 weeks, costing at least $180,000 and up to $234,000.

Commissioners might seek more than the $80 an hour fee the council was expecting to pay, as some independent commissioners charged $150 an hour, the report said.

Extra time and money was also allotted for deliberations outside of the hearing schedule, and possible transport and accommodation costs if they lived out of the district.

Hook said going through the submissions would be demanding, but said the councillors were prepared.

'The panel makes a commitment to put in the time, in fact that's required. It won't be unexpected,' he said.

The money would be sourced from the council's reserves, rather than from rates.

Council chief executive Mark Wheeler said the council had not defined exactly what it needed in a commissioner yet, but it would be looking for people with experience in a range of disciplines, 'from legal people to scientific and environmental people'.

'We'd be looking for a mix of skills. Good [Resource Management Act] knowledge and a legal background, [and] some scientific knowledge is useful, or the ability to interpret reports and understand the rationale for the policies.

'Local knowledge is important, but we have that with the councillors.'

At the next planning, finance and community committee meeting the council would decide what the requirements were, and then the application process could start, Wheeler said.

The plan would not become operational until mid-2018 at the earliest.