Approach to effluent issue fails smell test

Central Otago issues will remain at the forefront for one of the strongest voices to speak up for the district in many years. Pam Jones talks to Graeme Bell about life after the Otago Regional Council and the causes for which he will keep fighting.

Of all the issues to come across Graeme Bell's desk over the past six years as a regional councillor one still gets up his nose.

Not usually one to raise his voice, the former Otago Regional Council Dunstan ward councillor starts talking a little louder when discussing the issue of stock truck effluent disposal.

It still rankles that Central Otago ratepayers - who will soon have three regional council-imposed stock truck effluent disposal sites in their patch, while there are none in the Queenstown Lakes district - are funding the maintenance of the sites.

As well as protesting that, Mr Bell says he will also keep advocating for national legislation to allow transport operators to be fined for effluent spilled on to highways from their trucks, and wants transport operators to establish their own effluent disposal sites.

"I want to put it back to the transport operators. I don't believe it's something the ratepayers and taxpayer should be funding. Why would we expect the Mrs Smiths and Mrs Browns of Central Otago to have to pay? It should be user pays."

Mr Bell calls the regional council's handling of stock truck effluent disposal "a shambles", not least the arrangement whereby effluent from a new disposal site in Springvale, near Alexandra, is trucked to Balclutha for disposal.

Mr Bell, who is also a former Central Otago district councillor and Otago Central Electric Power Board member and was a founding Central Lakes Trust member, says he will continue his advocacy and "round the table" approach to this and other issues as he moves on from life as a regional councillor.

After serving two terms on the Dunstan ward Mr Bell stood unsuccessfully again in the last election, coming in fourth after successful candidates Michael Laws, Alexa Forbes and Gary Kelliher.

Mr Bell says it has "always been hard" getting Dunstan issues noticed around the regional council table, and knows the new group of Dunstan councillors will keep working hard for their constituents.

He says it is a positive thing to have Mr Laws as the council's deputy chairman and for him to "use that position in the right manner".

As the population in the Dunstan (Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes district) area continues to rise rapidly, the regional council needs to acknowledge Dunstan's increasingly pressing land, air and water issues, Mr Bell says.

He supports more funding for pest control and water quality, and also wants a regional office established in Central Otago rather than have more staff based at the Dunedin or Queenstown offices.

The new office should be in Alexandra, not Cromwell, Mr Bell says. He rejects notions Cromwell is a better location because it is closer to Queenstown and Wanaka

and points out Alexandra is more central when the Maniototo, Teviot Valley and South Otago are taken into consideration. Also, Alexandra would benefit more than Cromwell by having new residents and some empty retail space filled.

There are other things he will still push for, he says.

He would like to see combined hearing processes for applications which involve consents from both the regional and district councils, and has already been advocating for this.

He wants more resources and research done to tackle the rabbit problem, and urges caution about lifting rural rates too much, especially when rural residents already face high compliance costs and district council rates.

And he hopes for strong leadership of subgroups which will help guide regional council processes such as the transfer of historical deemed permits to new water consents.

Mr Bell is proud of his regional council involvement.

This has often literally been "hands on", including when he was in the thick of post-flood processes in Ophir and the Teviot Valley.

He is also proud of his work facilitating pathways and discussions for irrigators in the Kyeburn and Tarras catchments.

He expects ratepayers will keep applying pressure to the regional council. He says the "tide has turned" and the public, and some councillors, realise the regional council has not been serving its ratepayers as well as it could.

Mr Bell - a respected member of the wool industry and life member of the New Zealand Merino Shearing Society - said he was looking forward to continuing his job as a wool representative for PGG Wrightson.

He said he had been touched by the support he had received since departing the regional council, and thanked his constituents.

"I'll still serve my community. It's not about me, it's about the people. It always is and it always will be."