A Senior regional council staffer has broken rank and predicted councils will face a raft of problems policing a regulatory approach to land use, such as that proposed by Horizons Regional Council’s One Plan.

Speaking to Rural News on condition of anonymity – because other officials will likely see his view as “heresy” – the staff member says while there is no doubt regulations will increase, so will the problems councils’ will have to overcome enforcing them.

“Dealing with the environmental effects of land use is very complex. How to monitor, enforce and prove impact beyond reasonable doubt is easier said than done.”

The official says he is in a good position to know that regional councils do not yet have the means or knowledge to achieve this.

“If you discover that the nitrate levels in a waterway are high, proving which farm is the cause is not as straightforward as it might seem.”

It’s an opinion that’s received strong backing from Federated Farmers.

President Don Nicolson says that’s precisely the message he’s been trying to get across for some time.

He says councils, as a rule, have all been going down the regulatory path “and now it’s coming back to bite them”.

“What we’re talking about is people making subjective judgments when they won’t have any quantitative proof of what is right or wrong.”

Nicolson says policy compliance is eroding the profitability of farming to an extent that in some cases it’s become subsistent.

“These people [running regional councils] are building ever-increasing empires to police something that may not be a problem in the future.

Horizons group manager for regional planning Greg Carlyon says his council has already been regulating and monitoring land use and its record speaks for itself.

While he admits that the system is open to some subjectivity and is not full-proof “but the system is working”.

Carlyon points out 70% of the cost of compliance work is covered in the general rate “because we do recognise that the public does benefit”.

The other 30% is worn by the consent holder and comes in the form of an annual inspection charge.

Carlyon says it’s quite true that while regulations will increase, so will problems around enforcing them.

“In that way we’re no different from the industry. Dairy farmers have had to come up with increasingly sophisticated ways of lessening their impact and we’ll have to come up with more sophisticated ways of monitoring.”

Carlyon says the vast majority of consent holders complied with the conditions of their consent.

“There’s only about 10-15% who don’t. With most people here we have no problem.”

Hearings on Horizons’ One Plan, in particular the contentious water section, are due to wind up at the end of the month.