More than 100 submissions have been received on the Southland Mayoral Forum’s proposal for a regional development agency.
The month-long submission period closed on Monday with 94 submissions received before the 4.00 pm deadline. A further 13 submissions were received after the deadline and the Southland Regional Development Agency Consultation Joint Committee will decide whether they will be accepted.
Southland’s four councils are represented on the committee: Environment Southland – councillors Neville Cook and Grant Hubber; Gore District Council – councillors Cliff Bolger and Doug Grant; Invercargill City Council – councillors Rebecca Amundsen and Lesley Soper; Southland District Council – councillors Brian Dillon and Gavin Macpherson.
The committee chairman is Gore District councillor Cliff Bolger and Environment Southland councillor Neville Cook is deputy chairman.
A report will now be prepared summarising the key points of each submission. The report will be provided to the consultation joint committee along with a copy of each submission by the end of the month. At that time, the report and the submissions will become publicly available via any Southland council website or at Environment Southland’s office.
The joint committee is scheduled to begin hearing submissions in November. Dates and locations for the hearings are still to be finalised.