Common rules for landowners

Northland Regional Council’s new Regional Plan for Northland has rules that cover a variety of on-farm activities. The rules aim to help protect our environment, while at the same time provide for essential work to be done.

Always check the rules before you do the work

Before doing any work on farm, check the rules to make sure you comply with our permitted activity status or if you may need to apply for a resource consent.

If in doubt about whether your proposed work will need a consent or not, please contact our friendly staff – we’re happy to help.

List of common activities

The list below has common activities that farmers might want to undertake, and points you to the relevant rules in the Regional Plan.

Bear in mind it’s not a list of every rule in the Regional Plan – check the full plan or ask us if you’re not sure whether rules apply to your proposed work.

Activity	Rule
Activities in the beds of lakes and rivers Extraction of material from rivers Maintenance of the free flow of water in rivers and mitigating bank erosion Demolition and removal of existing structures Construction and installation of structures Minor river bank protection works Activities affecting wetlands General conditions*	C.2 C.2.1.2 C.2.1.3 C.2.1.9 C.2.1.10 C.2.1.11 C.2.2 C.2.3
Damming and diverting water	C.3
Land drainage Land drainage and flood control general conditions	C.4.1 C.4.1.9
Taking and use of water	C.5
Discharges to water Domestic discharges Farm or horticulture discharges	C.6 C.6.1 C.6.3
Burning	C.7.1
Livestock exclusion	C.8.1
Land preparation (Cultivation)	C.8.2.1
Earthworks	C.8.3.1
Vegetation areas	C.8.4.2

* Note that these general conditions apply to all activities in the beds of lakes and rivers