Reader's Guide to the SDR

Why have the submissions been summarised?

The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) requires Greater Wellington Regional Council to prepare a report summarising the decisions requested by persons who made a submission on the Proposed Natural Resources Plan (PNRP). The Summary of Decisions Requested (SDR) report contains more than 11,400 submission points from 429 submitters.

The information below sets out how the submissions were summarised and provides guidance on how to navigate the SDR report.

Where can I find the Summary of Decisions Requested (SDR)?

The SDR report is available online at www.gw.govt.nz/proposed-natural-resources-plan/ as both an online database and as downloadable PDF files and in hard copy at Greater Wellington Regional Council offices.

We recommend accessing the Summary of Decisions Requested through the online database. This database provides enhanced searching, filtering and exporting functions compared to the hard copy or downloadable PDF files.

Please note that there may be formatting inconsistencies between the Summary of Decisions Requested accessed via the online database, the downloadable PDF files, and the hard copy. These differences are in formatting only and not substantive in any way. Where there is a formatting difference between the versions that has the potential to create uncertainty, the version accessed via the online database should be referred to as the preferred version.

What does a ‘Summary’ mean?

The SDR report is a concise summary of the decisions requested in submissions. The SDR report is not intended to describe submissions in their entirety and does not include the reasons for the request or other supporting material included in the submission. Please refer to the original submission if you are seeking to make a further submission, or if you want to fully understand the issues raised by the submitter.  Full copies of all submissions are available online at www.gw.govt.nz/proposed-natural-resources-plan/.

In some submissions the decision requested by the submitter was unclear or missing. Any inferences made in the SDR to make the decision requested clearer are identified by the use of square brackets. For example, if the decision requested by the submitter is missing, the summary will show [Not stated].

Submission point numbering

Each submission has been given a unique number (S1, S2, S3, etc) and every decision requested has been assigned a unique submission point number (S1/001, S1/002, S1/003, etc). Each decision requested is shown next to the plan provision it relates to. 

Some requested decisions do not specify a provision or section of the PNRP. Due to the requirements of the database used to generate the SDR report, these submission points are coded against the provision or section of the PNRP of most relevance to the request. 

As far as possible, the submission point numbers are sequential. However, in some cases the numbering is not sequential as a result of points being added or deleted as part of the quality assurance process.

How are requested amendments displayed?

Where a submission requests amendments to the text of provisions in the PNRP, this is generally identified with a strikethrough for deleted text and underlining for inserted text. If requested amendments are not apparent then the complete text as it appears in the submission has been included and should be compared with the text in the PNRP.

Some submissions quote substantial sections or parts of the PNRP. The SDR typically only displays the text that has been amended and indicates the portions that have not been amended by the use of ellipses […].   Alternatively, the summary uses square brackets to refer the reader to the original submission for some requested decisions that are lengthy or complicated.

Many submissions included a request for “any such consequential amendments” or similar. Such requests are not included in the summary. The Proposed Natural Resources Plan Hearings Panel will be able to consider consequential amendments during the course of the hearings on the PNRP.

List of abbreviations used frequently in the summary