ECan chairman given formal warning over ‘illegal operation’ on farm

Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Environment Canterbury chairman Peter Scott has been given a formal warning by his own council following a 10-week, $66,000 investigation into his admission he was “operating illegally” on his South Canterbury farm.

Two other formal warnings were also issued, against prominent South Canterbury businessman Gary Rooney, who bought the farm in March 2023, and John Chapman, who leased the farm between 2019 and 2023.

A formal warning is one of a number of tools available to respond to breaches of the Resource Management Act. It carries no penalty, but forms part of a history of non-compliance, which can be used as the basis of future enforcement.

Scott, a mixed crop farmer, made the admission during a radio interview in April about regional council delays in processing resource consents.

In the interview, Scott - who has been on the regional council since 2016 and was elected chairman in 2022 - told broadcaster Heather du Plessis-Allan he was sympathetic to farmers facing resource consent delays.

He volunteered his own difficulties in getting consent from his own council, which had spanned six years.

“What I’m doing is I’m carrying on, and I’m ignoring the fact that I haven’t got [resource consent] … so I’m actually operating illegally and I’m the chairman of Environment Canterbury.”

Scott later walked back the comments and said he regretted making them.

At the time, ECan said it had “already followed up on” the matter, and while Scott was “operating without the necessary farming land use consent”, the council was “allowing” the activities to continue, given consent applications had been made.

The heavily redacted investigation report released by ECan provides scant new detail about the saga, which involves a complex tangle of land arrangements and regulatory changes.

It does, however, conclude that the three men all breached the same rule during their respective attachments to the farm.

In a statement issued through a public relations firm on Wednesday, Scott described the situation as “unfortunate”.

Scott said he was looking forward to getting back to his role as chairman, and it was “regrettable” the situation had caused “some distraction”.

It’s expected he will chair the regional council’s next full meeting on July 24.

In a statement accompanying the report’s release, ECan declined to identify who carried out the investigation to “protect their privacy, ,other than to say it was done by a “qualified, experienced Resource Management Act compliance officer from a North Island regional council”.

The investigation still leaves questions about how ECan dealt with the non-compliance.

In February 2019, an ECan plan change required Scott to apply for farming consent. Affected farmers were given a six-month grace period to comply.

Scott, however, filed for that consent in October 2022 - more than two years after the grace period elapsed, the investigation found. It does not appear that ECan took any action.

Under the RMA, offences cannot be pursued more than 12 months after the authority became aware of them. In this case, that was October 2022.

In its response to the report, ECan said this influenced the decision not to prosecute, as did the low-level nature of the offence.

Although the investigation centred on Scott, it also brought unwanted attention to one of South Canterbury’s wealthiest people.

Gary Rooney bought the farm from Scott in March 2023, having previously used it to store gravel extracted from the adjoining Opihi River.

Handwritten notes from the investigator suggest Rooney was guarded. When organising a time for the investigator to visit the farm, Rooney suggested a search warrant may be required. Rooney had an “obvious issue” with ECan, the notes said, which “appears to stem from previous unrelated matters”.

When the investigator met Rooney at the farm, Rooney reiterated his frustrations with ECan. The investigator summarised those concerns, in part, as a belief that “he is targeted or held to a higher bar than others”.

The Press has previously reported on the business deal between Scott and Rooney. Days before Scott stepped aside as ECan’s chairman, Rooney’s company made a scathing submission to ECan about policy proposals in the Long-Term Plan. At the time, Rooney owed Scott money, which was not public knowledge.

There is no evidence this relationship affected the outcome of the Long-Term Plan.

Scott’s radio comments appeared to be initially condoned, at least privately, by ECan chief executive Stefanie Rixecker.

Internal documents released under official information laws show Rixecker encouraged Scott to “lean in” to the claims in the immediate aftermath of the interview.

Scott emailed councillors shortly after making the comments, summarising what he’d said.

“Stefanie [Rixecker] is OK and thinks we can get some positive stuff about the issues we have around consents,” he wrote.

Minutes later, Rixecker forwarded the email to another staff member, adding: “My advice… to Peter was to ‘lean into’ this as it’s but one example of the complexity and the reason we have a [consent] backlog.”

But within days of the comments being reported by The Press, Scott had stood down and an investigation had been launched.

The investigation itself has been mired in secrecy, with ECan refusing to provide any details, including who was conducting the investigation or what the terms of reference were.

Last week, former ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke called for information on the investigation to be made public, and accused the council of being “stuck in a rut of secrecy”.

The investigation should be at a “high level” and be led by a retired judge or King’s Counsel, Burke said.