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Council addresses consenting issues
Wednesday 12 June
Council addresses consenting issues
Christchurch City Council is determined and confident it will be able to address all the concerns raised by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to improve the Council's building consent process within the agreed timeframe.
The Council has already addressed many of the findings from the International Accreditation New Zealand audit and is confident that all the concerns raised will be addressed by the due date of 28 June.
Mayor Bob Parker says, "In order to address these concerns, an action plan has been in development and we are determined we can meet this deadline. The action plan will be presented to a special Planning Committee next Tuesday. We have taken on extra staff, and working extra shifts and we will put a call out to all other Councils around New Zealand to see if they are able to assist us.
"I am confident that we will be able to clear the backlog and process all consents within the statutory timeframe. We are confident we can retain our accreditation as a building consent authority.
"The February 2011 earthquake exacerbated already existing problems with processes and timeframes with building consents.
"In supporting the rebuild of the city, Christchurch has experienced an unprecedented demand for building consents, and we knew we had a big job ahead of us to meet that demand. We've been working on ramping up our processes and systems to handle this huge influx and keep the rebuild moving."
In March this year the Council experienced a surge in the number of building consent applications with 690 in March compared to 586 last year. By May this year this had increased again to 830.
Latest statistics show that the value of building work for all consents for this financial year to date is $1.2 billion. The value of building work for all commercial projects over $1 million is $553.5 million.
"We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to address the issues they have raised."
ENDS
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