Bay of Plenty Regional Council welcomes environmental compliance and monitoring report findings

Bay of Plenty Regional Council chief executive Fiona McTavish. Photo / File

Bay of Plenty Regional Council has welcomed findings from an independent report into compliance, monitoring and enforcement by New Zealand's regional and unitary councils.

The report, commissioned by the regional council sector, has found across the country, compliance, monitoring and enforcement activities are in relatively good shape.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council compliance manager Alex Miller said the council took its responsibilities for managing the region's natural resources and protecting our taonga seriously.

The report looked at how councils across the country were responding to the growing number of pollution complaints and managed compliance of around 200,000 resource consents.

In Bay of Plenty, the regional council was responding to a growing number of calls to its pollution hotline, receiving nearly 3000 in 2017/18.

It also administered about 5000 resource consents.

Potential environmental risks of those activities meant that many of these consents needed to be checked regularly.

All 16 regional and unitary councils provided data for the study, resulting in the most comprehensive report available on the sector's compliance, monitoring and enforcement activities under the RMA's 27-year history.