The regional council expects the Government's Essential Freshwater Package could lead to an increase of more than 1000 consents, and perhaps as many as 1200, on top of the consents it already processes under its proposed Water and Land Plan. He said the consents team had been processing consents under the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan since 2016. "Many activities are also sought to be controlled by central government's Essential Freshwater package, such as intensive winter grazing. Once we know what the final version of the Essential Freshwater package looks like, we will be able to finalise our resourcing and response." The council had been closely monitoring the progress of the Essential Freshwater package, Smith said.

Source: Stuff January 13, 2020 23:15 UTC