20. Monitoring
20.1 Section Introduction
20.1.1.1 The Council is required to gather information, monitor, and keep records. The information gathered and records kept enables Council to make informed resource management decisions based on all possible information available at the time. This information also enables the public to be better informed of their duties and those of the Council, and assists the community to participate effectively in the resource management process. Effective monitoring allows Council to evaluate the performance of itself and the community in achieving resource management objectives. Monitoring enables Council to check whether that the performance standards specified for each Zone of the District are maintained, and are complied with.
20.1.1.2 The Council needs to undertake monitoring in relation to:
20.1.2 State of the District's Environment
20.1.2.1 State of the Environment monitoring is the collection of information to determine the condition of the environment, to identify changes occurring, and to gauge the effects that activities are having on the environment. State of the environment monitoring assists in obtaining base line data from which changes and trends can be established and analysed. The trends and patterns will enable Council and the community to see if the quality of the District's environment is getting better, getting worse, or remaining the same.
20.1.2.2 State of the environment monitoring can be undertaken in conjunction with numerous agencies external to Council, these include Environment Bay of Plenty Regional Council, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, the Department of Conservation, Iwi and hapu groups, industry groups, consent holders, and community groups.
20.1.2.3 The resources required to undertake state of the environment monitoring are significant. It is not possible for Council to monitor all of the components of the environment at the same time. In order to monitor the state of the District's environment Council must prioritise what issues or environmental concerns will be monitored. Council's Annual Plan will indicate what Council intends to monitor each year. A monitoring programme will be included in the Annual Plan and will be available for community comment.
20.1.3 Suitability and effectiveness of the District Plan
20.1.3.1 The monitoring of the suitability and effectiveness of the District Plan includes the monitoring of the issues, objectives, policies, rules, and other methods of the District Plan. In monitoring the suitability and effectiveness of the District Plan Council ensures that its District Plan is relevant to the community and is achieving the environmental outcomes that the community desires.
20.1.4 Functions, powers, or duties delegated or transferred by Council
20.1.4.1 Monitoring of those persons or Committees who are exercising functions, powers or duties delegated or transferred by Council is necessary to ensure that the responsibilities are been undertaken properly and effectively. Although Council may delegate or transfer functions, powers, or duties, responsibility ultimately rests with the Council. Council must ensure that any delegated or transferred functions, powers or duties are being undertaken in accordance with the District Plan and the Resource Management Act.
20.1.5 Resource consent compliance
20.1.5.1 Compliance monitoring is connected to the regulatory function of Council. It involves surveillance or the checking of resource consents to determine whether consent holders are complying with the conditions set out in their consents. The monitoring of resource consents provides the basis for intervention on the Council's behalf where unsound resource management practices are occurring.
20.1.5.2 It is not possible for Council to monitor every resource consent every year. There will be resource consents that require minimal monitoring while others may require substantial monitoring from Council. To manage resource consent compliance monitoring a strategy is being developed that will ensure Council's approach to resource consent compliance monitoring accommodates the variety of consents that Council receives.
Following is a summary of the type of environmental data that Environment Bay of Plenty Regional Council collects:
20.2 Resource Management Strategy
20.2.1 Resource management issues
1. Insufficient and inaccurate monitoring practices can lead to deficiencies in Council's operations and resource management decisions.
2. All monitoring that is needed can not be undertaken, priorities need to be established.
3. Monitoring undertaken without the involvement of the community will be ineffectual and the cost of the monitoring has the potential to increase.
4. Access to monitoring information needs to be defined.
5. There is a need for an integrated and systematic approach to monitoring within the Opotiki district, where environmental monitoring can amalgamate with monitoring undertaken for Council's other operations.
20.2.2 Objectives and policies
Objective 1. An efficient and effective monitoring programme that is an integral component of environmental management of the district, and that assists in ensuring the protection and enhancement of the district environment.
Policies 1.1 To obtain, on an ongoing basis, information on the district's natural and physical resources so that changes in the environment can be detected.
1.2 To monitor the suitability and effectiveness of the District Plan to ensure that it will continue to meet Council's legislative responsibilities, and will continue to meet the needs of the community.
1.3 To monitor the functions, powers or duties delegated or transferred by Council to ensure that persons or Committees with these functions and powers are exercising them efficiently and effectively.
1.4 To implement a resource consent compliance monitoring strategy that ensures a systematic and integrated approach to consent monitoring within the district is established.
Objective 2. An efficient and accountable process for monitoring and follow up procedures which will enable the public to gauge Council's effectiveness in its monitoring duties.
Policies 2.1 To include in Council's Annual Plans the monitoring priorities for each Annual Plan year.
2.2 To include in Council's Annual Report findings of monitoring programmes undertaken.
2.3 Monitoring of new developments and resource management issues that may arise throughout the lifetime of the Plan, where this monitoring will be incorporated into Council's state of the environment monitoring programme.
20.2.3 Methods of implementation
The objectives and policies of this section will be implemented by the following methods:
1. Other methods
20.3 Other Methods
20.3.1 Monitoring the State of the District's environment
20.3.1.1 Council's State of the Environment Monitoring Programme is established in Council's Strategic Plan. Components of the State of the Environment Monitoring Programme will be documented annually and will be included in the Council's Annual Plan. The Annual Plan will provide detail of what is to be monitored, the timetable for undertaking and completion of monitoring, and the anticipated cost of the monitoring. Those components of the environment that are to be monitored would have been established through a priority system that has been approved by Council. The monitoring priorities will be detailed each year and will be decided upon prior to the inclusion of the monitoring programme in the Annual Plan.
20.3.2 Monitoring the suitability and effectiveness of the District Plan
20.3.2.1 Council will consider independent impartial reports and recommendations on the suitability and effectiveness of the District Plan.
20.3.2.2 The report will include an analysis of comments received from the community and Council Officers related to the workability and relevance of the District Plan. It will detail the nature of the resource consent applications that have been received and the decisions on the applications. Consideration will also be given to any requests for plan changes. Monitoring the suitability and effectiveness of the District Plan can result in a Council initiated plan change where identified areas of concern can be altered.
20.3.3 Monitoring any functions, powers, or duties delegated or transferred by Council
20.3.3.1 Council will consider independent impartial reports and recommendations on the performance of bodies or persons whom have functions, powers or duties that have been delegated or transferred. This will ensure neutrality and effectiveness is maintained.
20.3.3.2 This monitoring of Committees will take into account any appeals made on resource consent application decisions, and any formal comments about the exercise of the delegated or transferred functions, powers, or duties. The monitoring will be undertaken twice yearly and the results will be included in Council's Annual Report.
20.3.4 Resource consent compliance monitoring
20.3.4.1 The monitoring of resource consent compliance will be undertaken through the Resource Consent Compliance Monitoring Strategy. The Resource Consent Compliance Monitoring Strategy provides a consistent approach to monitoring resource consents that have effect in the District.
20.4 Explanation
20.4.1 The reasons for the foregoing objectives, policies and methods are stated below.
20.4.2 Monitoring provides information on the effectiveness of policies, plans, and resource consents, and provides information on the quality of the district environment. Compliance monitoring describes a regulatory function of consent authorities, involving the observation or checking of consents to determine whether the consent holders are complying with the conditions of their consent. State of the environment monitoring enables Council and the community to gauge the effects of activities upon the quality of the district's environment.
20.4.3 Monitoring is an important component of the resource management process. Monitoring provides a 'loop' in the environmental management process. It provides an audit mechanism to ensure that sound resource management is being undertaken within the district. There is a difference between monitoring and data collection. Monitoring is a systematic, cyclical process involving planned and repeated data collection, analysis, interpretation, and reporting
20.4.4 Achievement of the objectives and policies of the District Plan requires the purposeful and programmed collection of information on the district environment. Investigation and analysis of information and data collected assists in establishing what changes, if any are occurring, and the reasons for the changes. The lack of a strategic approach to monitoring means that it is frequently undertaken in an ad hoc manner. Council's monitoring strategy will affect a cohesive and consistent basis for monitoring throughout the Opotiki district, and as a result will affect the objectives and policies of the District Plan.
20.5 Anticipated Environmental Outcomes
20.5.1 The environmental outcomes anticipated from the implementation of the objectives and policies of this section are:
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