Forest & Bird played a role in the convoluted, costly path the Otago Regional Council took to get a major planning document notified last week.
But the national environmental organisation says it has "no regrets".
The council’s attempt to fast-track its foundational regional policy statement (RPS) as an integrated freshwater planning instrument was struck down in a High Court case, Otago Regional Council v Royal Forest And Bird Protection Society Of New Zealand, nearly two years ago.
The council was required to split its RPS into freshwater and non-freshwater parts, appreciably adding to the amount of work and time it took to complete the overarching document which set out the environmental issues of the region and gave direction to regional and district plans on how to manage them.
The independent hearings panel’s recommendations report, released when the RPS was notified last weekend, said the process the council undertook created an "Alice in Wonderland legal situation".
There were jurisdictional procedural challenges as well as significant extra costs to the council, the panel said.
However, Forest & Bird legal counsel Peter Anderson noted the society did not bring the case to the High Court.
The council brought it to clarify the law after Forest & Bird raised concerns about its approach, Mr Anderson said.
"ORC’s approach was found to be wrong in law.
"If they had proceeded with that approach, then the decisions made would be invalid as they had used the wrong process.
"It is better to have the situation we have now, rather than having many parts of the decision ruled invalid, with the consequence that they would have to go back to square one.
"Forest & Bird has no regrets."
Now, the council continues to deal with the fallout as it tries to realign its land and water plan to accommodate the RPS changes, set by the panel.
Cr Kevin Malcolm noted former chief freshwater commissioner Prof Peter Skelton had advised the council years ago not to complete the land and water plan until the RPS was set.
He was one of several councillors who questioned whether council staff would be able to incorporate the RPS changes into the land and water plan before its new notification date of October 31.
Cr Kate Wilson said the RPS took "quite a different direction" after the council took on board the panel’s recommendations.
Nevertheless, the majority of councillors (7-5) voted for the plan’s new October notification date last month after council chief executive Richard Saunders said staff would be able to accomplish the work in front of them if councillors extended their deadline four months from the previous June 30 deadline.
Cr Alexa Forbes said she believed the new timeline was "OK".
"I don’t see that there’s that much of a new direction to be had.
"It is a higher order document, so the land and water plan needs to give effect toi the RPS, but I don’t think there’s that many areas that it doesn’t.
"I don’t think that it’s a huge job — and I don’t think we’re going to have a problem with the timing."
