Councils failing, says researcher

Regional councils are not helping the environment and need to improve or be scrapped altogether, new research suggests.

Massey University senior lecturer Jeff McNeill has spent five years researching the role of regional councils such as Horizons, and questions their efficiency.

He says they are not looking after the environment, and are having a negative impact in some cases.

"The cumulative effect has been to make it worse - they haven't managed to address the really hard issues," Mr McNeill said.

In his 11-year stint at Horizons as environmental policy manager, Mr McNeill found it frustrating trying to make changes. After a colleague commented: "It seems a funny way to run the country," Mr McNeill began to question if regional councils were doing their jobs.

He surveyed 150 people from organisations including Forest and Bird, Federated Farmers, Fish and Game and the Department of Conservation to find the answer.

The results show regional councils fail to have environmental benefits - but this is not entirely their fault, Mr McNeill said.

"Their ability to really tackle these problems  - or some of it  -  is a consequence of the legislation. Central government have walked away from the issue, and haven't given any guidance to regional councils.

"A lot of these councils are just so small, they don't have the capability, the money, the staff skills and leadership to make it happen."

Decision-makers on the councils are often farmers or retired councillors who have a vested interest in getting their own way rather than protecting the region, he said.

"Not picking on farmers, but if anyone is going to cause any environmental degradation it's them - and you would have to be a pretty brave councillor to tell your mates to pull their socks up."

Another issue is a lack of inter- council collaboration on projects, instead of taking a "do it once and do it right," approach.

"In the end, it does provide strong evidence to support the idea of having a national environmental protection agency, which is similar to other countries in the western world."

But Mr McNeill would prefer a far stronger regional body - encompassing health, social welfare, police and education providers - all working as one on a local level.

- © Fairfax NZ News