Pre hearing meetings

• What is a pre-hearing meeting?
• Who can attend a pre-hearing meeting?
• When will the meeting be held?
• Pre-hearing meeting report
• Mediation

What is a pre-hearing meeting?

Pre-hearing meetings provide an informal forum for discussion between consent applicants and submitters prior to a hearing being held. The purpose of these meetings is to gain a better understanding of the applicant's proposal and try and resolve any issues or concerns raised in submissions. The ARC, at the request of the applicant and/or submitters, or on its own initiative, will arrange a pre-hearing meeting. They are not mandatory under the RMA, but are very useful in practice.

While a pre-hearing meeting may not completely resolve all issues, if run effectively, it will assist in narrowing the matters to be considered in the formal hearing.

The following factsheet 'Pre-hearing meetings and hearings' contains all the information you need about pre-hearing meetings.

Who can attend a pre-hearing meeting?

• The applicant
• All submitters
• A chairperson. The consents officer processing the application will appoint either an appropriate staff member at the ARC or an independent facilitator to chair the meeting
• Consents staff, to clarify any issues about the council's functions and the resource consents process
• Secretarial staff may also be present to record notes of issues discussed and any resolution or agreement reached.

If a person is required to attend a pre-hearing meeting and fails to do so and does not provide a reasonable excuse (such as work or family commitments or health issues), the ARC may refuse to process the person's application or to consider the person's submission. If the council refuses to consider the person's application or submission, then that person may not appeal against the decision on the resource consent or to become party to someone else's appeal. However, there is a right of objection under section 357A of the RMA against the decision to refuse to process the application or to consider the submission.

When will the meeting be held?

Timeframes may vary, but the pre-hearing meeting will usually be held as soon as possible after the closing date for submissions.

Whenever possible, the meeting will be held at an appropriate venue as close to the location of the proposed activity as possible, e.g. a local community hall.

In some cases, a site visit may be undertaken before the meeting if it may help achieve a better understanding of the proposal.

Pre-hearing meeting report

Once a pre-hearing meeting has been held, the chairperson is responsible for producing a report setting out the issues that were agreed at the meeting and those that are unresolved. It may also set out such matters as the nature of the evidence to be called, or a proposed timetable for the hearing. The report must be circulated to all parties that attended the meeting at least five working days before the hearing commences. It will be appended to the officers' report and the ARC must have regard to it when reaching a decision on the application.

Mediation

The ARC, at the request of the applicant and/or submitters, or on its own initiative, may also refer the parties to mediation. Mediation provides another opportunity for parties to define issues, identify broad topic areas of concern and explore potential options for agreement. It is more formal than a pre-hearing meeting and more time is taken initially for all parties to establish ‘ground rules' and agree on a strategy to guide the mediation process. Any settlement of issues may mean that a hearing is not required.