Kia ora Dom,
  

We acknowledge receipt of your official information request dated 6 August
2025. 

 
You have requested: 

 

 1. The most recent joint witness statements (JWS) involving environmental
scientists or technical experts that discuss the setting or reviewing
of freshwater targets, limits, criteria, or thresholds.  

(These statements should relate to your most recent district plan change
where such matters were addressed.) Please provide the documents in
digital format.

 

 2. If no JWS exist, please confirm whether any expert conferencing or
similar collaborative evidence processes took place, and provide the
relevant outputs (e.g., conferencing reports, summary statements, or
meeting notes).
 

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and, in
any event, no later than 12 September 2025, being 20 working days after
the day your request was received. If we are unable to respond by then, we
will notify you of an extension of that timeframe. For requests that are
likely to involve substantial collation and/or research, there may be a
charge for staff time. However, if this is the case, we will advise you
before we process your request, giving you the opportunity to decide
whether to proceed with the request.  

 

Your request is being handled by the Legal team. If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact the team at
[1][email address]. If any additional factors relevant to your
request come to light, please do not hesitate to contact us so that these
can be considered. 

Yours sincerely,
Legal Services Officer

 

  ​​​​
LGOIMA
LGOIMA Requests
Call  +64 3 543 8400   |   [2][Tasman District Council request email]
Private Bag 4, Richmond 7050, NZ
[3][IMG] [4][IMG] [5][IMG]
This e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal professional
privilege. If you are not the named addressee, please delete the
message and notify us of the error. You must not copy, use, or
disclose this communication, or any attachments or information in it.
​

show quoted sections

Kia ora Dom,

 

We refer to your official information request dated 16 August 2025.
 

Our understanding of your request is as follows:

 

o You are seeking the most recent Joint Witness Statements (JWS)
involving environmental scientists or technical experts that discuss
the setting or reviewing of freshwater targets, limits, criteria, or
thresholds.
(These statements should relate to the most recent district plan
change where such matters were addressed.) You have requested these
documents in digital format.
o If no JWS exist, you have asked us to confirm whether any expert
conferencing or similar collaborative evidence processes took place,
and to provide the relevant outputs (e.g., conferencing reports,
summary statements, or meeting notes).

 

To ensure we can accurately respond to your request, we would appreciate
clarification on the following points:

 1. Are you referring to changes to regional plans, rather than district
plans? (Freshwater targets, limits, etc., are typically addressed in
regional plans.)
 2. Is your request specifically in relation to the 2020 National Policy
Statement for Freshwater Management?
 3. Are you only seeking collaborative expert conferencing/evidence, or
would you also like to include individual expert technical reports or
other evidence used to inform the plan-making process regarding
freshwater limits/targets?
 4. Are you interested in both freshwater quantity limits (e.g., water
allocation) and freshwater quality limits/targets?
 5. Is your request intended to cover the entire Tasman region, or are you
focused on specific catchments?

 

Please note that your original request will need to be clarified or
amended before we can proceed. Under section 13(7) of the Local Government
Official Information and Meetings Act, any clarification or amendment is
considered a new request for the purposes of calculating the statutory
timeframe for response.

 

Yours sincerely  
Legal Support Officer

 

 

  ​​​​
LGOIMA
LGOIMA Requests
Call  +64 3 543 8400   |   [1][Tasman District Council request email]
Private Bag 4, Richmond 7050, NZ
[2][IMG] [3][IMG] [4][IMG]
This e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal professional
privilege. If you are not the named addressee, please delete the
message and notify us of the error. You must not copy, use, or
disclose this communication, or any attachments or information in it.
​

From: LGOIMA <[Tasman District Council request email]>
Sent: Monday, 18 August 2025 8:54 am
To: Dom C <[FOI #32023 email]>
Subject: LGOIMA Request: JWS district plan - Dom C - Reference: 3089

 

Kia ora Dom,
  

We acknowledge receipt of your official information request dated 6 August
2025. 

 
You have requested: 

 

 1. The most recent joint witness statements (JWS) involving environmental
scientists or technical experts that discuss the setting or reviewing
of freshwater targets, limits, criteria, or thresholds.  

(These statements should relate to your most recent district plan change
where such matters were addressed.) Please provide the documents in
digital format.

 

 2. If no JWS exist, please confirm whether any expert conferencing or
similar collaborative evidence processes took place, and provide the
relevant outputs (e.g., conferencing reports, summary statements, or
meeting notes).
 

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and, in
any event, no later than 12 September 2025, being 20 working days after
the day your request was received. If we are unable to respond by then, we
will notify you of an extension of that timeframe. For requests that are
likely to involve substantial collation and/or research, there may be a
charge for staff time. However, if this is the case, we will advise you
before we process your request, giving you the opportunity to decide
whether to proceed with the request.  

 

Your request is being handled by the Legal team. If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact the team at
[5][email address]. If any additional factors relevant to your
request come to light, please do not hesitate to contact us so that these
can be considered. 

Yours sincerely,
Legal Services Officer

 

  ​​​​
LGOIMA
LGOIMA Requests
Call  +64 3 543 8400   |   [6][Tasman District Council request email]
Private Bag 4, Richmond 7050, NZ
[7][IMG] [8][IMG] [9][IMG]
This e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal professional
privilege. If you are not the named addressee, please delete the
message and notify us of the error. You must not copy, use, or
disclose this communication, or any attachments or information in it.
​

show quoted sections

Kia Ora Dom,

We acknowledge receipt of your email providing clarification dated 9
September 2025

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and, in
any event, no later than 7 October 2025 being the new statutory deadline
(20 working days after the day your request was clarified). If we are
unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an
extension of that timeframe. For requests that are likely to involve
substantial collation and/or research, there may be a charge for staff
time; however, if this is the case, we will advise you before we process
your request.

The legal team is handling your request. If you have any questions, please
feel free to contact the team at [email address]. If any additional
factors relevant to your request come to light, please do not hesitate to
contact us so that these can be taken into account.

Yours sincerely,
Legal Services Officer

  ​​​​
LGOIMA
LGOIMA Requests
Call  +64 3 543 8400   |   [1][Tasman District Council request email]
Private Bag 4, Richmond 7050, NZ
[2][IMG] [3][IMG] [4][IMG]
This e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal professional
privilege. If you are not the named addressee, please delete the
message and notify us of the error. You must not copy, use, or
disclose this communication, or any attachments or information in it.
​

show quoted sections

Kia ora Dom, 
 
We refer to your official information request dated 16 August 2025 and
further to our e-mail dated 21 August 2025 where we sought clarification
of your request. You have clarified what information you specifically
require, and our response is below: 
 
Simply put, our response is that we do have any joint witness statements
in scope of your request (JWS).  
 
The Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA)
enables people to request official information from local government
agencies, including the Tasman District Council. However, the LGOIMA only
applies to information already held by the Council. The Council is not
obligated to create information to respond to a request.    
    
The information you are seeking in this case is not held by the Council
but would need to be created to respond to your request.   
    
We are therefore refusing your request under section 17(g) of the LGOIMA
because the Council does not hold the information requested.  We are,
however, able to advise of the following: 
 
We can also confirm that we have not located any relevant JWS processes
related to water quality limits.  
 
We do not have any recent regional plan changes that relate to setting or
reviewing of freshwater targets, limits, criteria, or thresholds, as this
work is all on hold pending the Resource Management Reform process and the
revised National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. The key
schedules relating to water quality limits in Part 6 of the Tasman
Resource Management Plan (TRMP) have been in the TRMP since its original
notification process in the late 1990s/early 2000s.  Most of our plan
changes relating to freshwater since then have focused on water allocation
and flows/levels.  An interim approach for water quality limits were
initially included in PC48 for the Waimea catchment however this was a
blank placeholder table and was removed by the commissioners during the
Schedule 1 process for that plan change. 

The most relevant plan change process which you may be interested in is
our current plan change for supporting the water conservation order (WCO)
for Te Waikoropupū Springs (PC84).  However, this is still pending
ministerial approval to notify the plan change, so it is still just a
draft change.  
 
If we receive approval, any JWS or evidence and technical advice relied on
for setting of any associated limits will be publicly provided along with
the plan change documents online.  Note however the WCO related ones are
already publicly available through other sources (e.g EPA website).  
 
The Environment Court WCO recommendations report (link on [1]EPA website
to pdf [2]here) summarises all the evidence and JWS relied upon by the
Environment Court in recommending the final version of the Water
Conservation Order which was subsequently gazetted (including water
quality and flow limits).  
 
For copies of the JWS and evidence itself, this was an Environment Court
public inquiry, not a council run process, so you therefore, would be best
to contact the Court directly to seek copies of associated evidence and
any JWS referenced in the recommendations report (We are not aware of the
JWS and evidence being on the EPA or Court websites specifically, only the
recommendations report, but they are public documents so should be
available by request).  

 
Yours sincerely,   
Legal Services Officer 

 

  ​​​​
LGOIMA
LGOIMA Requests
Call  +64 3 543 8400   |   [3][Tasman District Council request email]
Private Bag 4, Richmond 7050, NZ
[4][IMG] [5][IMG] [6][IMG]
This e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal professional
privilege. If you are not the named addressee, please delete the
message and notify us of the error. You must not copy, use, or
disclose this communication, or any attachments or information in it.
​

From: LGOIMA <[Tasman District Council request email]>
Sent: Thursday, 11 September 2025 10:40 am
To: Dom C <[FOI #32023 email]>
Subject: RE: LGOIMA Request: JWS district plan - Dom C - Reference: 3089

 

Kia Ora Dom,

We acknowledge receipt of your email providing clarification dated 9
September 2025

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and, in
any event, no later than 7 October 2025 being the new statutory deadline
(20 working days after the day your request was clarified). If we are
unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an
extension of that timeframe. For requests that are likely to involve
substantial collation and/or research, there may be a charge for staff
time; however, if this is the case, we will advise you before we process
your request.

The legal team is handling your request. If you have any questions, please
feel free to contact the team at [email address]. If any additional
factors relevant to your request come to light, please do not hesitate to
contact us so that these can be taken into account.

Yours sincerely,
Legal Services Officer

  ​​​​
LGOIMA
LGOIMA Requests
Call  +64 3 543 8400   |   [7][Tasman District Council request email]
Private Bag 4, Richmond 7050, NZ
[8][IMG] [9][IMG] [10][IMG]
This e-mail is confidential and may be subject to legal professional
privilege. If you are not the named addressee, please delete the
message and notify us of the error. You must not copy, use, or
disclose this communication, or any attachments or information in it.
​

show quoted sections