Bryan Scott resigns from Otago Regional Council

A Dunedin councillor has pulled the plug on a 20-year careering local politics citing Government interference in local environmental efforts as the reason.

Bryan Scott resigned from the Otago Regional Council yesterday, following the Government intervention in the council’s proposed Regional Land and Water Plan.

Speaking to Crux today, Mr Scott said it seemed the coalition Government wants to go "back to the bad old days” of putting economics before the environment.

The big picture is that we're continually fighting to improve our environment.

If you go to places like South Otago, North Otago,  there's degradation in our rivers. If you go to Central Otago, typically a certain amount of water is taken out of our rivers for irrigation. And so, as a council we've been working to address those issues and it's really taken a lot of time.

“On Wednesday we were finally at a point to notify that plan, and the day before it occurred, the coalition government put in a last minute amendment to the Resource Management act in retrofit. Retrospectively it didn't allow us to notify. So to me, it's a gutting situation. We've invested so much time and money and resource, we've worked with the community, we've worked with iwi and here we are.

“The point is, that you have Central Government and they have their role. You have local government and we have our role. And the interesting thing is, you know, they don't perfectly align from a timing perspective. Central government will establish national policies and they will come and go. Regional and local government have their own responsibility, put together their own plans on behalf of their community.

“The point is, the Otago Regional Council has been working earnestly to fulfil its legal obligations and moral obligations.”

The Government’s amendment to the Resource Management Act will restrict councils’ ability to notify new freshwater rules until either December 31, 2025 or until the new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) is in place, or unless an exemption is provided by the Government.

Mr Scott said despite his resignation over this issue, he has enjoyed his 20 years on the regional council.

“It's been an absolute privilege. I've met a lot of good people and there's a lot of good people doing a lot of good work.”