Issue date
Helping to ensure Council Regional Plans do not impact negatively on boating and sailing is a big part of the advocacy work Yachting New Zealand does and our success benefits all club members.
Regional Plans can have an impact on a huge range of issues important to us including how long boaties can anchor somewhere, where you can clean your boat, where moorings can be placed, where marine farms can be set up, where you can dump holding tanks and coastal occupancy charges.
Yachting New Zealand advocating on behalf of clubs and boaties helps ensure more favourable rules for boaties, helps ensure access to the areas we see as important and reduces the need for lengthy legal battles for clubs and boat owners in the future.
We feel it is important to try and make an impact at a legislative and regional plan level, to save fighting a lot of individual cases along the way at a great expense of time and money to clubs, boaties and Yachting New Zealand.
This month, Yachting New Zealand submitted on the Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan. Amongst many changes proposed was a rule amendment extending the limit from shore within which boats could not pump out sewerage; the extension was from 500 metres to 2 kilometres. The impact of this proposed change is that there would be almost nowhere within the Marlborough Sounds to empty holding tanks, meaning boaties would need to go out into Cook Strait to empty their holding tank.
Yachting New Zealand felt the extension was unsupported by research and could also place vessels and their crew in danger in adverse conditions. A copy of our submission can be viewed here http://www.yachtingnz.org.nz/advocacy/ynz-submissions. Clubs in the region also made submissions including the Waikawa Boating Club.
Yachting New Zealand was recently successful in seeing the same distance extension (500m to 2km) proposal removed from the Auckland Unitary Plan. Our legal submission made in the Unitary Plan hearing was endorsed in its entirety, a copy of this submission is also available at the link above.
We are currently preparing a submission on the Proposed Northland Regional Plan. Part of our submission looks to protect the successful outcomes in the Plan Change 4 case regarding aquaculture in Northland. We will also be submitting on proposed rules regarding anchorages, sewage and biofouling. We will post the submission on the Yachting New Zealand website once it is finalised.
