Horizons, my local regional council, has consistently dragged its feet on clean water, refusing to take a strong stance on cleaning up the Manawatu River and letting farmers ignore the requirements of its One Plan (and then trying to cover it up). And it looks like they're doing the same on National's National Policy Statement for Freshwater:
Pushing for swimmable waterways would destroy the livelihood of the Manawatu, according to a regional councillor.
On Tuesday Horizons councillors voted against pushing the Government to aim for a harder target than wadeable waterways.
"It is just not physically possible unless you want to destroy the livelihood of this region and the agricultural sector by imposing those sorts of standards for every day of the year," Palmerston North councillor Murray Guy said.
Horizons has a statutory duty to protect our waterways. Clearly, a majority of them are uninterested in doing that. The good news is that there's local body elections in October, so we get a chance to vote these polluting pricks out and elect people who will actually do their fucking job.
(Post title from councillor Bruce Rollinson, who pretty much asked for it)
