Source: Federated Farmers
Farmers are deeply disappointed that Otago Regional Council has decided to charge ahead unnecessarily with piling more regulation on rural communities, Federated Farmers says.
ORC councillors voted 7-5 yesterday to move forward with notifying its controversial draft Land and Water Plan on October 31.
It’s a poor decision that will result in even more regulation being piled onto Otago farmers in the coming months, Federated Farmers environment spokesman Colin Hurst says. “The last thing farmers struggling through high interest rates, low payouts and drought conditions want to be waking up to is news that more red tape is likely on the way later this year.”
A draft of the Regional Plan released last year included fertiliser caps, stock rate limits and new fencing requirements for most of the catchments in the Otago Region.
Since that draft was released, central Government has made amendments to primary legislation, relaxing timeframes by which time new regional plans need to be developed.
The Government has also stated it int
