Outdoor Walking Access Report to the Minister for Rural Affairs

Appendix E: Walking Access Consultation Panel’s terms of reference

The Panel will attempt to establish more clearly the concerns of interest groups and the extent to which agreement may be reached on measures to:

  • clarify existing public access rights along water margins (that is, the location of the Queen’s Chain);

  • establish the location of “gaps” in the Queen’s Chain, their significance and how they might be remedied;

  • signpost access rights to water margin land so that the public will be better informed on where they may walk;

  • establish a code of responsible conduct applying to persons walking on private land or on land adjacent to private land;

  • protect the security of landholders where this is seen to be an issue;

  • deal with issues which may arise in respect of walking access from a Māori perspective;

  • provide access along rivers and lakes which may have no Queen’s Chain at all;

  • negotiate access across private land to the Queen’s Chain or to public land where there is no other reasonable or convenient means to access this land;

  • explore with interest groups and organisations how suitable unformed legal roads might be better used to provide walking access to the Queen’s Chain or to public land.

The Consultation Panel should also explore the nature of the proposed Access Commission, and how a Commission might provide the necessary leadership on access-related issues.

The Panel may report on any other matters related to access policy that appear to require the Minister’s consideration.

Process

The Walking Access Consultation Panel will hold working meetings in Wellington. It will meet on an “as needs” basis, expected to be of the order of five or six one- or two-day meetings, at regular intervals.

There will be two components to the consultation process. Firstly, the Minister will release a synopsis of the access work to date, and key issues, and invite submissions from the public. The role of the Panel will be to receive and consider these submissions. The second component will be a process whereby the Panel hears the concerns of, and discusses areas of common ground with, identified interest groups and organisations. The above terms of reference will form the basis for these discussions.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) will prepare working papers, where required, for the Panel before each meeting. Where appropriate, those papers will be prepared in consultation with other agencies.

Individual members of the Panel will be free to put up any paper for the Panel to consider or provide other input they feel appropriate.

MAF will service the Panel, and will assist the Panel in its report to the Minister.

MAF will obtain legal advice as the need arises, and may make this advice available to the Panel. Members of the Panel are expected to work co-operatively, to look for points of agreement between differing views, and to help construct a report and recommendations that can be accepted by the Panel as a whole.

Members of the Panel have been appointed for their background and experience relating to walking access issues, rather than as advocates for particular interests. They are, however, free to put forward the views of interest groups for discussion. Where the Panel cannot reach agreement, it must record the options for consideration by the Minister.

The Minister reserves the right to disband the Panel or change its membership at any stage in the process.

The report

The Consultation Panel will report back to the Minister by December 2005.14

The report will:

  • summarise public submissions received;
  • summarise the views and concerns of each of the groups or organisations met with;
  • record the level of agreement on each of the issues in the terms of reference;
  • advise areas of disagreement, and recommend possible solutions;
  • describe any other matters which the Panel considers to be relevant to walking access, taking into account the stated policy objective.

14 Subsequent to drafting the terms of reference, the Minister and the Panel agreed to a reporting date of early 2007.