Find out about consulting affected people, iwi and hapū.
Consulting with affected people
When consulting with people affected by your proposal, it is useful to find out:
- whether they are likely to support or oppose your proposal
- if any issues they might have can be resolved by you
- whether they will provide their written approval for your proposal.
If all the people who are likely to be affected by your proposal provide written approval, your application may be able to be processed without notification. This can speed up the consent process and minimise cost.
Although you are not required to consult, it can be beneficial to do so. Consultation does not mean agreement and even after consultation, there can still be unresolved issues. This does not prevent you from submitting your resource consent application.
Who should I consult?
You should consult with anyone who could be potentially affected by your proposal, including:
- Adjacent landowners or occupiers
- Tangata whenua (local iwi/hapu authorities)
- Other users of the resource
- Anyone else affected by your proposal.
When should I consult?
Generally speaking, you should consult at the earliest opportunity. This gives affected people the chance to consider your proposal.
Early consultation also gives you the opportunity to amend the proposal if required, or deal with people’s concerns and build them into the application.
Consulting with iwi and hapū
Applicants should consult with local iwi who may be affected by a proposal as early as possible to ensure they have time to consider and advise of any concerns.
The Resource Management Act recognises that iwi have a special cultural and spiritual relationship with the environment. When considering an application, we need to recognise and provide for the relationship of Māori, their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands, water, sites, wāhi tapu and other taonga (treasures).
We can provide contact details for iwi who should be consulted in your area. We can also help with the correct procedures on how to consult different iwi. Contact us to find out more about this.
Remember, consultation does not require agreement. It is to allow you and Council to be informed about the views of iwi.
If iwi concerns cannot be resolved and you still want to proceed with your application, then it is imperative that you have made a genuine attempt to consult in an open and honest manner, so that their views are recorded and can be taken into account.
What iwi may expect during consultation
In general, when iwi are approached to consult over a proposal, they have may the expectation that:
- they have access to all relevant consent information
- there is a willingness to meet face to face and that their views are respected
- if a meeting is agreed to take place on a local marae, any marae costs are met as part of the consultation process
- the applicant commissions and pays for a 'cultural impact assessment report'. This may be desirable for a large-scale development and/or where it can be demonstrated that the proposed activity may have a significant impact on the iwi.
A fee to cover the costs of consultation may be requested by iwi. It is therefore advisable that you discuss potential costs prior to starting consultation.