Balclutha River, Otago Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Otago regional councillors have voted to push ahead with a controversial land and water plan but not as originally planned following heated debate.
The draft ORC plan proposes a shake-up with stricter rules protecting Otago's waterways and was due to be notified in June.
The council has been criticised for not accepting a ministerial extension to the deadline, pushing it back until late 2027, while the government overhauls the freshwater management rules.
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds has asked the council to hold off from notifying its plan until after that impending rewrite, asking for an outline of the costs, benefits and implications if they choose to go ahead as scheduled.
Councillors met on Wednesday to discuss whether they should hit pause, proceed as planned or have a short delay before notifying the proposed Land and Water Regional Plan.
The council previously said it had taken years to develop the plan, it had cost more than $17 million already and redoing it would come at a cost to ratepayers.
In a report, staff recommended a four to six month delay to allow them to work through the implications of proposed changes to the council's regional policy statement, allow for more targeted stakeholder engagement and communication with the minister.
The first motion to stick with the status quo failed with councillors raising concerns that staff would not have enough time to do the work they wanted to do.
Throughout the meeting, the debate was often heated with two failed motions and an amendment before councillors voted to notify the regional plan by the end of October.
Even then, it was far from unanimous with seven supporters and five against the motion.
The councillors also voted to use the extra time to factor in feedback, review the impact of a regional policy statement and prepare advice for the minister.
Chairperson Gretchen Robertson said the council was not being rebellious and was going off the current rules.
"We have followed the law. What more can we do?"
Council staff are expected to report back to councillors in May with an updated programme of work.
