Growing calls to pollution hotline show changing attitudes

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council received 20% more calls to its Pollution Hotline over the past year, highlighting the community’s growing dissatisfaction with people who disrespect the environment.

1,095 calls were made to the Pollution Hotline in 2017-18, compared with 915 in 2016-17. Of these 696 were for air complaints and 224 for surface water complaints.

The 92 infringement notices issued in 2017-18 were a 67% increase on the previous year. 46 abatement notices were issued. The number of prosecutions remained the same at five.

Councillor Neil Kirton called it a very useful report.

“It’s great to see honest commentary in the report, with continuing focus on the compliance operations of our councils, sectors and industry. Standards must be met and the performance of our local authorities should lead the way,” says Cr Neil Kirton.

“I congratulate the dairy industry on the growing number of gold, silver and bronze certificates identified in our annual Dairy Excellence Awards, across the 79 dairy farm operations in Hawkes’ Bay,” says Cr Paul Bailey.

The Compliance 2017-18 Annual Report gives a detailed picture of activities in 2017-18.

A public-friendly Compliance Monitoring and Incident Reporting - summary report, containing a snapshot of annual activity, is also on the Regional Council's website.

Call the Regional Council Pollution Hotline on 0800 108 838, 24 hours/ 365 days a year, to report an environmental issue.

1 October 2018

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