More than 100 submissions have been received on the Southland Mayoral Forum’s proposal for a regional development agency.

The month-long submission period closed on Monday, 2 October with 94 submissions received before the 4pm deadline. A further 13 submissions were received after the deadline and the Southland Regional Development Agency Consultation Joint Committee will decide whether they will be accepted.

A report will now be prepared summarising the key points of each submission. The report will be provided to the consultation joint committee along with a copy of each submission by the end of the month. At that time, the report and the submissions will become available online or at  Environment Southland’s office.

The joint committee is scheduled to begin hearing submissions in November. Dates and locations for the hearings have yet to be decided.

Southland’s four councils are represented on the committee: Environment Southland (Councillors Neville Cook and Grant Hubber),  Gore District Council (Councillors Cliff Bolger and Doug Grant), Invercargill City Council (Councillors Rebecca Amundsen and Lesley Soper) and Southland District Council (Councillors Brian Dillon and Gavin Macpherson).