The Otago Regional Council should "vigorously" lobby the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) to ensure it does not drop newspaper advertising as a mode of notifying the public about hazardous substances and new organism applications, Cr Michael Deaker says.
Erma is proposing to change the way it publicly notifies applications, from advertising in newspaper public notices to full public notice on its own website.
Notices could be placed in newspapers if Erma considered specific applications to warrant it, the proposal said.
The aim of the proposal is more effective public notification and reduced administration costs.
It was a move opposed by some Otago Regional councillors at a recent meeting.
Cr Deaker said the proposal "flies in the face" of clearly established history.
"You don't kill one medium to go with another. You stay on all of them. You don't make an abrupt change like this."
Cr Duncan Butcher said he read the newspaper public notices every Saturday and always took notice of the Erma advertisements but had never gone on to the Erma website.
"We are still newspaper advertisement orientated."
The council needed to raise the issue as a concern, especially as the proposal seemed to be different from how other government departments advertised their public notices.
"It won't save Erma [much] money. They don't use big notices."
Cr Louise Croot said it was important to realise many rural residents did not have access to fast broadband services, so looking up websites was time consuming.
Chairman Stephen Woodhead said there were still people who tried to avoid computers.
The council decided it would make a submission on the proposal, expressing concern about its direction, while supporting Erma determining a better method of public notification and finding methods to reduce costs. The period for consultation on the proposal ends today.
