Newly elected Horizons Regional Council councillor John Turkington says he and his company have been charged with breaching the Resource Management Act.

Horizons Regional Council has laid charges against one of its newly elected councillors for breaching the Resource Management Act.

John Turkington romped home in the Manawatū-Rangitīkei electorate in the recent local body elections, beating former Horizons chairman Bruce Gordon and then-sitting councillor Gordon McKellar.

In a statement released on Thursday morning, Turkington said he and his company, John Turkington Ltd, had been charged by Horizons with breaching the Resource Management Act.

According to court documents filed in the Whanganui District Court, he and the company face three charges each.

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The first two charges alleged there were illegal forestry earthworks and discharges of sediment between April 2018 and June 2019.

The third charge alleges non-compliance with an abatement notice.

An August Horizons environment committee agenda shows Turkington's company was issued abatement notices in May and June for forestry earthworks stabilisation.

A council spokeswoman said in October the details of those abatement notices could only be issued if an official request for information was made, which can take four weeks to be answered.

All the offences are alleged to have taken place at a remote property north of Kai Iwi, a small settlement between Whanganui and Hawera.

Turkington said all charges would be defended and he was proud of conducting his business with integrity.

As a strong advocate for sustainable land use and conservation, he gave priority to making sure his company followed best environmental practice.

He released a statement to be transparent to his constituents, but would make no further comment since the charges were before the court, he said.

The case will next be in court in January.

Turkington is not the first councillor to find themselves in this position.

John Barrow, who served three terms before deciding to not seek re-election in 2019, was discharged without conviction in 2013 for taking excess water to irrigate his dairy farm and failing to comply with an abatement notice in 2010 and 2011.

At the time, councillors decided if prosecutions took place or not.

That practice has since changed.