What your council actually means: A translation guide

If you've ever read a council agenda, a Long-Term Plan, or a resource consent decision and felt like you were reading a different language, you were. Not because the words are complicated — most of them aren't — but because they're being used for a purpose that isn't communication.

Council documents are written to satisfy statutory requirements. They need to demonstrate to auditors, lawyers, and the Local Government Act 2002 that the council followed the right process. The language is there to prove compliance, not to help you understand what was decided. That's a structural choice, not an accident — and it's why a phrase like "aligned with" can appear 40 times in a single council plan without ever telling you whether the council actually agrees with what it's aligned to.

Here are eight phrases you'll encounter in council communications, what you'd reasonably think they mean, and what they actually mean in practice.

1. "Aligned with"

When a council plan says its approach is "aligned with" a National Policy Statement, it's telling you the council's plan complies with a legal requirement. The council didn't choose to align — it was required to. If you disagree with the direction, your argument is with the higher-level policy, not the council.

"Aligned with" is the council equivalent of a corporate press release saying "we are committed to" something. It sounds like a values statement. It's actually a compliance statement. The council may agree with the direction, or it may not — but the word "aligned" tells you nothing about either. It only tells you the document is consistent with something else the council was required to be consistent with.

And it doesn't mean "within budget," either. A project can be perfectly "aligned with" a national policy direction and still be wildly over budget, unfunded, or deferred. "Aligned with" tells you about policy consistency, not about whether the council has the money to do it.

2. "Noted"

"Noted" is perhaps the most misleading single word in council communications. In everyday English, if someone says "I've noted your concern," you'd expect them to do something about it. In council English, "noted" is the end of the road.

A committee might "note" a report on rates affordability. That sounds like they're paying attention to the issue. What it means is the report was presented, received, and no decision was made. If you make a submission and the council "notes" it, your submission was acknowledged — not agreed with, not actioned, not incorporated. It was received and filed.

"Noted" is the council's way of saying "we heard you" without saying "we'll do anything about it." It's not dishonest — it's just a different language.

3. "Supported in principle"

"In principle" is the gap between an idea and a decision. A council might "support in principle" a proposed walking track, a community garden initiative, or a rates relief scheme. None of those mean the project will happen. It means the council agrees the concept is good. The actual decision — funding, timeline, construction, implementation — is a separate process that may or may not follow.

Sometimes it does follow. Often it doesn't. "Supported in principle" is not a commitment — it's an opinion. If your council supports something "in principle," the useful question is: when will the actual decision be made, and is funding allocated? Until the answer to both is yes, it's a nice thought, not a plan.

4. "Give effect to" vs "Have regard to"

This is one of the most important legal distinctions in New Zealand planning law, and hardly anyone outside the planning profession knows it exists.

"Give effect to" is a strong directive. Under the Resource Management Act 1991, district plans must "give effect to" national and regional policy statements (sections 67 and 75). The council doesn't have a choice. If the national policy statement says X, the district plan must implement X. "Give effect to" means actively implementing the higher-order direction, not just acknowledging it.

"Have regard to" is much weaker. Under section 104 of the RMA, when a council considers a resource consent application, it must "have regard to" the relevant plans and policies — but it can decide those matters are outweighed by other factors. "Have regard to" means "look at it and weigh it," not "do what it says."

5. "Notified"

"Notified" is the word that determines whether you get a say. Under the RMA sections 95A–95G, resource consent applications fall into three categories:

• Publicly notified: Anyone can make a submission. The council advertises the application, and there's typically a 20-working-day window for the public to respond. A hearing may follow.
• Limited notified: Only directly affected parties are informed and can submit. The wider community has no input.
• Non-notified: No public input at all. The council assesses the application internally, often within 20 working days. Most resource consents in New Zealand are processed on this basis.

If your neighbor applies for a resource consent — say, to build something that affects your sunlight, or to subdivide their property — and the application is processed as non-notified, you won't know about it until it's approved. You had no opportunity to have your say. The difference between "notified" and "non-notified" is the difference between having a voice and not knowing the decision was made.

6. "Activity"

In council plans, the word "activity" is everywhere. The Local Government Act 2002 requires councils to group their work into "groups of activities" for reporting purposes. Each group has its own budget, its own levels of service, and its own capital programme.

When a council plan talks about "activities," it's not talking about things people do — it's talking about what the council spends money on. An "Activity Management Plan" for water is a budget document for water infrastructure, not a guide to recreational water activities. "Funding Impact Statement by Activity" means the budget broken down by service area, not by what ratepayers were doing.

This matters because the word "activity" makes council budgets sound more dynamic than they are. A "significant activity" isn't an exciting event — it's a service the council spends a lot of money on. Understanding this one word unlocks a surprising amount of the document.

7. "Significance"

"Significance" isn't a casual word in council language — it's a legal term with consequences. Under the Local Government Act 2002, every council must adopt a Significance and Engagement Policy. That policy sets out what counts as "significant" — and when a decision is "significant," the council must use the special consultative procedure under section 83 of the Act. If a decision is not significant, the council can proceed without formal consultation.

Here's the part that matters: each council sets its own threshold for what counts as "significant." The council decides when it needs to ask you for input. When a council says a decision is "not significant," they're not saying it doesn't matter — they're saying they've determined they don't legally need to consult you.

That's not necessarily wrong — not every decision requires public consultation, and the threshold is meant to filter for decisions that genuinely affect the community. But it means the word "significance" in a council document is never just about importance. It's about whether you get a say.

8. "Consultation"

"Consultation" sounds like a conversation — you have input, they listen, the decision reflects what they heard. Under the Local Government Act 2002, section 82, the principles of consultation require that people likely to be affected are given enough information and a reasonable opportunity to present their views. The special consultative procedure under section 83 adds formal steps: a statement of proposal, public availability, and a submission period.

But here's what consultation doesn't mean: it doesn't mean the council will change its decision based on what it hears. If 90% of submissions oppose a proposal and the council proceeds anyway, they've still "consulted." The consultation happened. The result just didn't change. The legal requirement is to listen and consider — not to follow.

Consultation is not a vote. It's a legally required listening exercise. The value is real — submissions can change outcomes, and they create a public record of community sentiment — but the mechanism is transparency, not democracy.

This isn't a criticism of councils. The framework exists because councils make hundreds of decisions a year, most of them routine, and not all of them warrant a full public process. But it means "we consulted" should be read as "we asked, we listened, we decided" — not as "we did what the community wanted."

Sources: Local Government Act 2002 (consultation, significance, activity definitions); Resource Management Act 1991 (give effect to, have regard to, notification); Quality Planning — "Give effect to" discussion; Quality Planning — Section 104 matters; Ministry for the Environment — Patterns in RMA implementation (most consents non-notified); Office of the Auditor-General — Significance policies; LGA s82 — Consultation principles; LGA s83 — Special consultative procedure.