Turbine certainty called for
Horizons Regional Council is calling on local councils to get firm on where wind farms can go in Manawatu-Wanganui, or residents will have no certainty about what’s being built next, or where.
Horizons has fielded 29 inquiries in the past two years from parties interested in building wind farms, and chief executive Michael McCartney has again called for regional leadership on the issue.
“Local government in the region needs to come up with ways to provide communities with certainty.”
In 2005, Mr McCartney corresponded with all territorial authorities and arranged a meeting to clarify regional policies and objectives. That meeting was about 18 months ago but “there were differences of views about the merits of wind farms in different councils”, he said.
Now, the constant number of inquiries showed the issue was not going away, and he is again calling for regional leadership.
Many councils had been caught unawares by how fast wind farm development had spread, and it was time to catch up, he said.
“The issue of wind farms has come along really quickly.”
The rules about what could go where had to be clarified, to put an end to the current case-by-case situation, he said.
“They are dealt with in an ad-hoc method.”
While Horizons had control over resource consents and landscape protection, it was local councils, through district plans, who set the rules about what could be built in each territory.
Presently, most councils don’t specify where wind farms can go.
The number of queries did not mean 29 wind farms would be built, he said.
“[Inquiries] don’t always translate into things happening. A very small percentage of them end up being applications or proposals.”
But it demonstrated councils had to start planning how they would handle a growing number of applications.
Zoning and planning through district plans were important steps, but the territorial authorities also had to start co-operating to come up with a regional strategy.
“That’s the call, it’s why can’t local government work together to come up with some solutions?”
Previously most applications had been centralised around Palmerston North and Tararua, but now inquiries were spread throughout the region, including Waiouru and offshore.
A regional vision would help guide the territorial authorities in their district plans.
By Katie Chapman
28 August 2008
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