A boil water is in place for businesses and properties across Queenstown following a number of confirmed local cases of illness caused by the protozoa, cryptosporidium. This affects all properties serviced by the Council’s Queenstown supply including Frankton, Quail Rise and Tucker Beach Rd, Kelvin Heights and Hanley’s Farm. Read more here.

The state of local emergency in Queenstown, originally declared on Friday morning after a severe weather event, has been lifted. However, some restrictions will remain in place to protect public safety as the focus turns to recovery. Full information here.

National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards

Under the Resource Management Act, central government is in charge of preparing national policy statements and national environmental standards.

These set out the overarching national policy direction for Councils to deal with resource management issues.  When drafting policy and making resource consent decisions, QLDC must take these into account and follow the direction.

National Environmental Standards set out prescribed technical standards, methods or other requirements for environmental matters. Every Council must enforce these standards to enable a consistent approach and decision-making process. The National Environmental Standards, along with the District Plan set out whether resource consent is required or not.

The National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards can be found on the Ministry for the Environment website: https://environment.govt.nz/acts-and-regulations/national-direction/

Resource consent may be required for a project from QLDC under the requirements of the National Environmental Standards.