Before we make a decision to grant or refuse a consent application, you may be able to make a submission to the Council presenting your point of view on it.
You can only make a submission if we have decided to:
publicly notify the application by publishing a notice on our website and advertising it in the public notices section of the newspaper, or
served notice on you by letter, since we think that the proposed activity may have an adverse effect on you.
Anyone can make a submission on a publicly notified application.
Only those persons served notice can make a submission on a limited notified application.
If others feel the same way as you about the application, you can make a joint submission.
For example you may form a community group and have a spokesperson - and in your submission name them as your contact person. A joint submission has the same weight as one where all the individuals made their own.
You can either use the Council submission form or write your own submission
Form for submission on resource consent application.pdf (pdf 175 KB)
For more information about making a submission, you can go to the Ministry for the Environment's guide:
Making a submission about a proposed plan or resource consent | Ministry for the Environment
Read and understand application carefully. Print out any parts of the application you think are important, and include those to help explain your submission.
Look at the the assessment of effects on the environment (AEE) and how the applicant says they will manage any of the adverse effects.
Refer to the Tasman Resource Management Plan. You will find it on this website.
See the Tasman Resource Management Plan
Your submission must be in writing and tell us:
Your full name, address, email address, and telephone number.
Do you support or oppose the application, or are you neutral?
What are the parts of the application you support or oppose? You can refer to a specific page or section.
Why do you support or oppose the application?
What decision do you want in response to your submission?
If the consent was granted what would you want conditions of consent to control or require?
Do you want to speak at a hearing? If you say yes we must have a hearing.
Is there any other information that you think is important for the decision-maker to know about.
To make you submission as effective as possible:
Explain why you support or oppose the application so we can understand your views.
Tell us how the proposal affects you and the environment and how you think the effects could be managed.
Focus on facts and give examples whenever you can.
Focus on the specific activity in the application - as the Council can only consider the environmental effects of activities that the applicant has applied for, and we cannot take into account trade or business competition.
Suggest alternatives to the proposed way of managing adverse effects, together with your reasons for the alternatives.
Explain why you want any particular conditions placed on the consent application - it may be to provide greater certainty on how the activity will be done and how the effects will be managed.
Remember the context is the RMA and the TRMP, and many proposals do involve some kind of change. The RMA is not 'zero effects based'. If rules are breached, this triggers the consent process to look at the effects of that change from the proposal. The questions to think about are:
what are the significance of the effects?
how do those effects and the outcome fit with the TRMP objectives and policies? and
Your submission gives information and evidence to help in this assessment and make a better more informed decision making process.
You can lodge your submission with the Council (Resource Consents Administration Officer) in any of the following ways:
Email to the Council at [email protected]
hand deliver to any of our Council service centres;
mail to Private Bag 4, Richmond 7031;
You must also send a copy of your submission to the applicant. We always provide details of where you must send it to get to the applicant.
We will write to you once the submission period ends and confirm that we have got your submission. If you want to see the other submissions, you will either find them on our website or we will share them digitally.
The Council officer will always address and consider the issues in the submissions in their report and recommendation.
If we are making a decision on the application by having a hearing, then we make the consent planner's report available electronically at least 15 working days before the hearing date.
Submitters can ask for an independent commissioner to decide on a resource consent application, rather than local Councillors.
If you do want an independent commissioner, you must make sure we receive your request for a commissioner hearing within five working days from the date the submission period ended. If you are asking for us to use an independent commissioner, you may have to contribute to any increased cost.
If you are an applicant you may object to the Council's decision on your application, or to the additional charges or costs that Council has requested.
As the applicant, you can object to the conditions that we put on the resource consent, if:
You have this right under s357A of the Resource Management Act (RMA). Some types of applications do not have objection rights.
You also have a right of objection to a request by Council to pay additional charges or costs. You have this right under s357B of the RMA.
You must lodge your objection with us within 15 working days of when you received Council’s notice of its decision.
You must send us your reasons for objecting. Set out clear reasons for your objection.
We consider your objection and:
If you ask for an independent commissioner to decide your objection, then we must use one for the hearing.
If you are still unhappy with our decision, you may have a right to appeal to the Environment Court. You have 15 working days from when you receive the decision on the objection to lodge your appeal.
If you are unhappy with our decision on a resource consent you may lodge an appeal with the Environment Court.
If you are an applicant or a submitter on many types of applications, then you may appeal our decision.
You are excluded from appealing applications - unless it’s a non-complying activity under the TRMP rules - if it was lodged with Council after 18 October 2017, and it included one of the following:
This restriction also applies to appeals on objections on the same types of application above.
As an applicant, you might appeal if:
As a submitter (in opposition), you might appeal if:
You can only appeal on the same issues that you made in your submission. For instance, if your submission only focussed on how the height and location of a proposed building caused overshadowing on your property, then you can’t appeal on traffic issues.
If you are considering appealing a resource consent decision, you should seek professional advice first, especially from a lawyer. If the Environment Court finds the appeal is 'without substance' then you may have to pay for some of the costs that the applicant and Council have had to meet.
You can also find useful information in the Ministry for the Environment's An Everyday Guide to the Resource Management Act. We recommend you look at the sections on the Environment Court, the mediation process, and the costs awards process.
Ministry for the Environment's An Everyday Guide to the Resource Management Act
If you decide to appeal, then you must lodge your notice of appeal with the Environment Court and send a copy of the notice to the Council. You must do this within 15 working days of receiving the decision.
The Environment Court's website explains how you lodge an appeal with them and what is required. This includes the forms, fees, procedures, and how the Environment Court works.
The Environment Court of New Zealand Te Kōti Taiao o Aotearoa
In summary, you will need to:
When an appeal is lodged with the Court, then other parties have an opportunity to join the proceedings. Usually these are the submitters who join. If you do join, then this is the only way you have the right to participate in the appeal. You can find details on how to join the proceedings on the Environment Court website. Any person who joins in this way is known as a 'section 274 party'.
If you do want to become a section 274 party, you have 15 working days from the end of the appeal period (or when the appeal proceedings commenced) to lodge your notice with the Environment Court (and also serve a copy on the Council).
You will find all the details on how to join the proceedings on the Environment Court website.
After a consent is granted, you may be able to make an objection to the us about the decision.
You can make an objection if you're the applicant and:
After a decison is made on a consent application, you may also be able to make an appeal to the Environment Court.
You can make an appeal if:
There are some limits placed on these appeal rights:
You have 20 working days after the application is notified to get your submission to us. Sometimes we may have a longer submission period.
We always tell you the date and time the submission period ends.
You must make sure that we receive your submission in time to ensure we can accept it.
Link to current notified applications that you can make a submission on.
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