Gisborne slash clash: Mayor feels like 'meat in the middle'

Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz says she feels like the ''meat in the middle'' between her community and the forestry sector.

Forestry Minister Todd McClay had told the Gisborne District Council that its approach to sediment management and forestry slash was too tough and a facilitator had been appointed to help "reset the relationship" with the sector.

Stoltz told Checkpoint that a meeting with the minister on Wednesday had been "productive" and the Gisborne community deserved a "collaborative" approach between local and central government.

She said community members told her that the council's approach to consent was not tough enough, but that the forestry industry had expressed a different view.

"We are getting constant feedback that it is strict, or that the industry is finding that the consent conditions are stricter than what they would expect, so, what we then said is 'We are doing our work, but we hear you'. So we are going to ask an independent panel to evaluate what we have in our consenting regime, how we plan and is it proportionate to the risk we are trying to look after?"

Stoltz said the council had appointed an independent reviewer - Chris Finlayson - to look at its consent conditions.

"I feel sometimes like the meat in the middle, where we are trying to look after our environment, we are trying to make sure there is economic activity as well. So, from one side we are hearing 'it feels like this is too tough'. Our community are feeding back to us saying ít's not tough enough. So we are testing that, because at the end of the day we do want to make sure it is fit for purpose and that's exactly what we are doing now."

Stoltz said following Cyclone Gabrielle the government appointed a panel to investigate the impact of storm damage caused by wood debris and sediment on communities.

"We were firmly told to firm up our compliance monitoring and enforcement and that's what we have been doing for the past two, three years."