To ensure all submissions are fully considered, the joint draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP) 2018-2024 hearing is being delayed until June.

The sheer number of submissions means the original timeframe set aside for Council officers and committee members to review and give due consideration to all the submissions received would not be long enough.

Other Council commitments, such as Long Term Plan consultations for both Napier and Hastings, was also a factor in the decision to re-schedule the hearing for the week of 18 June 2018.

The draft plan has been put together by the Napier and Hastings councils, as co-authors of the existing waste plan and co-owners of Omarunui Landfill.  The overwhelming response to the call for submissions over the five-week consultation period was amazing, says Tania Kerr, Hastings Deputy Mayor and joint Waste Futures committee chairperson. “We are looking forward to reviewing the submissions and finding out what Hawke’s Bay residents want us to do with waste, and how they wish us to minimise waste in the future.”

Feedback on options such as the introduction of green waste collection has been most interesting, says Annette Brosnan, the committee’s deputy chairperson. “It’s encouraging to think so many people in the community have taken the time to consider our draft plan, and I thank them for their input.”

Every six years the Hastings District and Napier City Councils, which manage the landfill, are legally obliged to review their joint WMMP, which sets out how waste will be managed in the region.  Following the hearing the committee’s recommendations will go before both Councils, which are due to adopt the final joint WMMP 2018-24 by the middle of 2018.

| a Joint Napier & City council release  |  March 30, 2018   |||