Category: Environment

Around this time of year, we get many calls complaining about smoky or smelly outdoor fires. To avoid complaints from your neighbours and a visit from one of our incident response officers, get familiar with the outdoor burning rules and consider alternatives to burning.

Under 2 hectares? You can’t burn outdoors

Remember that if your property is under two hectares (20,000 square metres), you can’t burn outdoors, even if you live in a rural area.

If your property is over two hectares, you can burn only paper, cardboard, untreated wood, and dry vegetation from your property and a neighbour’s property. Smoke must not cause a nuisance beyond your property boundary or be blown towards a township. If you live in a Clean Air Zone, you may only burn between 1 September and 30 April. For more information about the outdoor burning rules, visit our outdoor burning page.

Check it’s alright before you light

Before lighting any fires, visit checkitsalright.nz to find out whether your area is in an open, restricted or prohibited fire season and what you should do to keep yourself and others safe.

Rubbish fires are a no-go

No matter how large your property is, you must not burn rubbish. Burning rubbish causes toxic chemicals to be released into the air and creates a health hazard as well as a nuisance for you and your neighbours. Materials that must not be burned in Waitaha/Canterbury include:

• plastic
• metals
• batteries
• painted or treated wood
• rubber
• coated wire
• oil
• chemicals
• tar and bitumen
• materials containing asbestos
• containers that have stored hazardous materials.

Plastic and wood can be disposed of with general rubbish, but batteries, paint and hazardous materials need to be taken to a transfer station. Visit your local council’s website to find out how to sort your waste and the location of your nearest transfer stations.

Of particular concern in the rural environment is the burning of bale wrap and other household rubbish. Bale wrap and other farm waste can be recycled through Agrecovery or Plasback.

Burn only dry organic material

“Burning wet organics, like freshly felled trees for example, generates much more smoke than a dry burn. That’s when you get thick, black smoke that causes a real nuisance to the surrounding community,” said compliance team leader, north, Brian Reeves. “The smoke contains small particles that can irritate the nose and throat and even have more serious health impacts over time.”

Outdoor burning rules state that the moisture content of any material being burnt must not be greater than 25 per cent.

Alternatives to outdoor burning

Consider smoke-free alternatives for dealing with your green waste. Garden waste can go in the green bin or the compost. Grass clippings and leaves can also be used as mulch in the garden.

Cooking outdoors is allowed

Whether you prefer a barbecue, pizza oven, hāngī or umu, you can cook outdoors as long as the smoke is not offensive or objectionable beyond your property boundary.

How to report outdoor burning

If smoke from outdoor burning is causing a nuisance for you, call us on 0800 765 588 (24 hours) or use the Snap Send Solve app to report an issue from your mobile phone.

Our Harbourmaster’s Office plays a key role in managing cruise ship activity across Waitaha/Canterbury.  

There are four places in Canterbury that get visits from cruise ship ships during the summer months – they are Kaikōura, Lyttelton, Akaroa and Timaru. 

Our team in the Harbourmaster’s Office are responsible for several functions including:  

• granting permissions to enter the Kaikōura and Akaroa anchorage sites
• enforcing speed and wake requirements
• maintaining communications with the ship as necessary.  

We also work closely alongside other agencies to ensure cruise ship operations are completed in a safe and coordinated manner.  

“This season, we have reduced the number of designated anchorages down to three in Akaroa harbour due to concerns about the environment and seabed,” said Guy Harris, Harbourmaster.  

“We have also further limited the maximum size of a cruise ships that may enter Akaroa without requiring a resource consent.”  

Working together to reduce cruise ship impact  

In partnership with the Department of Conservation, Christchurch City Council, and ChristchurchNZ, we continue to closely monitor cruise ship activity in Akaroa. 

Cruise ship visits in Akaroa have been a matter of community interest and discussion in recent years, with concerns raised over the number of ships visiting, potential damage to the seabed and safety.  

The reduction in cruise ship visits to Akaroa is consistent with the intent of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment 2021 report, which focuses on reducing the environmental footprint of the tourism industry.   

Limiting ship length and thruster use 

Information from a risk assessment in 2019 led us to limit thruster use by ships at anchor, to reduce the potential for seabed disturbance. A survey of the Akaroa Harbour in 2021 led us to close some anchorages and limit the size of ships coming into the Harbour from 260 lengths between perpendiculars (LBP) to 200m LBP. For a larger ship to enter it would need to get resource consent first. 

“A repeat survey of the open and closed anchorages in Akaroa was undertaken by Southern Hydrographic in 2023 with an additional survey planned for 2025.  

“This will help us determine the rate of physical recovery of the closed anchorages and inform future operational decisions,” said Guy. 
A total of 17 cruise ships are scheduled to visit Akaroa this season.  

Construction of a new Akaroa Wharf 

Christchurch City Council will soon begin work to rebuild the Akaroa Wharf. Construction is expected to get underway in late 2025 and be completed in 2027.  

Drummonds Jetty is currently being extended in preparation as a temporary replacement while the main wharf is constructed. The Harbourmaster’s Office team will be installing some channel marker buoys for vessels approaching Drummonds Jetty and have been working with Christchurch City Council on shifting some swing moorings to ensure there is a clear channel.  

Council’s regular meeting took place today (Wednesday 23 October), with several key topics on the agenda.

Annual Report 2023/24 adopted

Our Annual Report covering the 2023/24 financial year was adopted at the Council meeting.

The report highlighted that we achieved 90 per cent of our levels of service, compared to 75 per cent the previous year. Similarly, 95 per cent of targets were achieved compared to 89 per cent in 2022/23.

Other highlights from the report included:

• 14.5 million passenger trips on our public transport network – up by nearly 2.9 million on 2022/23 (and the highest patronage levels since the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes)
• 3,115 labour hours spent controlling sycamore, cotoneaster, wild cherry and wilding conifers in the Rakaia Gorge
• 63 water and land projects funded by the Canterbury Water Management Strategy zone committees to implement their action plans
• 1,266 resource consent application decisions
• As of the end of 2023/24, we have resolved over 50 per cent of legacy applications and expect to clear them all by the end of 2024, meaning we can focus on new applications and processing consents more efficiently for our customers. We are now processing 70 per cent of new applications within the statutory timeframes.

In adopting the Annual Report, Chair Craig Pauling and the Councillors acknowledged the mahi (work) put in by staff, both during the year and in producing the Annual Report.

“This reflects all the work that we have done for our community over the last 12 months. It’s been a massive effort on all fronts, and to get an unmodified opinion from Audit New Zealand is a really great result.”

Representation arrangements stays with status quo

Following community feedback, the Council agreed to retain a similar representation arrangement to what is currently in place for the 2025 elections.

The status quo means two Councillors for each of the seven existing constituencies, with some minor boundary adjustments to the Christchurch City constituencies:

• Aligning the Christchurch constituency boundaries to the current city ward boundaries
• Altering the boundary of the Christchurch Central/Ōhoko constituency to exclude the Linwood Ward and include the Papanui Ward
• Altering the boundary of the Christchurch North-East/Ōrei constituency to exclude the Papanui Ward and to include the Linwood Ward.

This is a change from the initial proposal the Council consulted the community on earlier this year.

Visit our Have Your Say website for more information on the representation review.

Support for cruise ships re-introduced

Councillors have decided to allocate up to $210,000 from the public transport reserves to meet potential demand on the Metro network for the upcoming cruise ship season.

This will see the extra provision of public transport on Route 8 on eight key days during the cruise ship season to minimise disruption, particularly around school and commuter peaks.

This would provide on-street ticketing and additional capacity.

Find out more: Public transport support on its way to help customers this cruise ship season

Our Waitarakao Strategy adopted

A strategy to restore the mauri (life force) of Waitarakao Washdyke Lagoon catchment, near Timaru, has been approved by two of its four partners this week, following extensive community feedback and the recent endorsement from the project’s joint steering group.

Both Timaru District Council and we have this week approved the Our Waitarakao: Waitarakao Washdyke Lagoon Catchment Strategy at their respective Council meetings. The remaining two project partners, Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua and the Department of Conservation, will now consider approval through their processes.

Find out more about the Our Waitarakao: Waitarakao Washdyke Lagoon Catchment Strategy