From 2e90d66be748a751439661599424b111441ddb02 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: rekado Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2015 14:15:36 +0200 Subject: assignment3: last changes before submission --- assignment3/background.tex | 8 ++++---- assignment3/conclusion.tex | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------------- assignment3/document.tex | 2 +- 3 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-) diff --git a/assignment3/background.tex b/assignment3/background.tex index 361062f..a3ec167 100644 --- a/assignment3/background.tex +++ b/assignment3/background.tex @@ -198,10 +198,10 @@ have been publicly notified, members of the public can make submissions to challenge---or express support for---the application. Following the submission period a pre-hearing meeting can be arranged, -which is a rather informal setting in which submitters, applicant and -council representatives try to clarify issues before the official -hearing. Additional mediation sessions may be arranged to resolve -conflicts and reach an agreement without the need for a formal +where submitters, applicant and council representatives try to clarify +issues before the official hearing in a rather informal setting. +Additional mediation sessions may be arranged to resolve conflicts and +reach an agreement without the need for a formal hearing \parencite{ME959}. For publicly notified applications, the council usually organises a formal hearing in which submitters may present their submissions and where the applicant is to present diff --git a/assignment3/conclusion.tex b/assignment3/conclusion.tex index 8d52b57..8b68523 100644 --- a/assignment3/conclusion.tex +++ b/assignment3/conclusion.tex @@ -1,23 +1,39 @@ \section{Conclusion} -% TODO +To summarise, there is little opportunity for the general public to +influence the decision on resource consent applications, because only +a fraction of them is publicly notified. The decision whether to +notify or not is made by the council and depends on the quality and +coverage of the local plan. Overall, plans are of medium to poor +quality, making it difficult for planners to evaluate a proposal and +its accompanying assessment in the intended spirit of the policies. -- there is little opportunity for the public to influence the decision -on resource consent applications, because only a fraction of them is -notified. - -- overall, plans are of rather poor quality, making it difficult for -planners to evaluate a proposal and its accompanying assessment -in the intended spirit of the policies. - -- councils are subject to capacity bottlenecks which gives rise to an +More importantly, however, the implementation of a plan is influenced +by the responsible council's capacity and the attitude of the council +officers assigned to evaluate resource consent application. Councils +are subject to capacity bottlenecks which give rise to an implementation gap, i.e. the use of less sophisticated procedures and -methods than declared in the plans. +methods than declared in the plans. As a result, inadequate +assessments of environmental effects are more likely to pass through +the review stage. +Since consultation is not a mandatory part of the resource consent +process under the RMA, non-notified applications may never be exposed +to much needed independent scrutiny. Notified applications with +assessments that are hard to understand for lay people may require +members of the public to gain access to expert knowledge and +professional representation to have their concerns heard and accepted +as valid. -% - Consultation is not mandatory under the RMA, but is encouraged -% - results from consultation / mediation process are not binding -% - there is a history of underestimating the size of the group of `directly affected' people -% -% - government wants to shift power from the local councils to -% national entity, at the expense of community consultation +Grinlinton's statement seems to imply that councils are purposefully +negligent in the evaluation of applications that are expected to have +economic benefits, or at least accept this bias. This analysis, +however, suggests that this is not the case. While it may be true +that individual councils are primarily interested in the economic +effects of a proposal and only take a secondary interest in the +environmental or social impacts, it seems that the two major +difficulties in consent processing are a lack in the capacity to +implement plans and a history of underestimating the size of the group +of `directly affected' persons. As a result, the ability of the +general public to participate in the decision-making process under the +requirements for consultation laid out by the RMA is severely limited. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/assignment3/document.tex b/assignment3/document.tex index a9988b6..4acc487 100644 --- a/assignment3/document.tex +++ b/assignment3/document.tex @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ % have collected in your clippings file of current environmental issues % for this. - {\footnotesize{Approximate word count: 3000}} + {\footnotesize{Approximate word count: 3200}} \printbibliography[heading=bibnumbered] -- cgit v1.2.3