Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Resource Management Act 1991

Standards, policy statements, and plans - National direction - National environmental standards

43E: Relationship between national environmental standards and bylaws

You could also call this:

“What happens when local bylaws are stricter or weaker than national environmental rules”

If you have a bylaw that is stricter than a national environmental standard, the bylaw wins if the standard says it is okay for the bylaw to be stricter. You can tell if a bylaw is stricter than a standard if it stops or limits something that the standard allows. A bylaw can be less strict than a national environmental standard if the standard says it is okay for the bylaw to be less strict.

If a bylaw is less strict, it means it allows or permits something that the standard does not allow. When we talk about bylaws, we mean rules made under any law. You can find more information about these laws on the New Zealand legislation website.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM233327.

Topics:
Environment and resources > Conservation Environment and resources > Town planning
Previous

43D: Relationship between national environmental standards and designations, or

"How national environmental rules work with special area plans"

Next

43F: Description of discharges in national environmental standards for discharges, or

"What's in waste that's released into the environment"

Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
National direction: National environmental standards

43ERelationship between national environmental standards and bylaws

  1. A bylaw that is more stringent than a national environmental standard prevails over the standard, if the standard expressly says that a bylaw may be more stringent than it.

  2. For the purposes of subsection (1), a bylaw is more stringent than a standard if it prohibits or restricts an activity that the standard permits or authorises.

  3. A bylaw may be more lenient than a national environmental standard if the standard expressly specifies that the bylaw may be more lenient.

  4. For the purposes of subsection (3), a bylaw is more lenient than a standard if it permits or authorises an activity that the standard prohibits or restricts.

  5. In this section, bylaw means a bylaw made under any enactment.

Notes
  • Section 43E: replaced, on , by section 29 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 87).
  • Section 43E(3): replaced, on , by section 31 of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).