Thursday 13 June 2013

Offers of help flood in to process Christchurch consents

Christchurch City Council has been flooded with offers of help to clear its backlog of building consents, and keep the Christchurch rebuild moving.

Christchurch City Council today put out a call to other Councils around New Zealand after an audit report by International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) identified concerns with its ability to process the huge increase in building consents.

Offers of help from consenting and building specialists around New Zealand have come in immediately following the appeal, says Mayor Bob Parker.

“It has been an extraordinary demonstration of support ranging from New Zealand’s largest Council in Auckland to offers of help from around the South Island.

“We are enormously grateful and touched by the generous offers of help. Again we are benefiting from the immense goodwill of our colleagues and New Zealanders that mirrors the kind of response we experienced following the Canterbury Earthquakes.

“New Zealanders are clearly behind us in keeping rebuild efforts going and understand the extraordinary situation we are facing. It’s been a heart warming reaction to another call for help.”

Invercargill City Council has offered to assist with processing consents and has undertaken to approach other Councils in the region to see if they can also help.

Selwyn District Council has offered to share their expertise and ideas to speed up consent processing.

Auckland City Council has created a Christchurch rebuild team where staff will work extra hours processing consents for Christchurch. One person has even offered to fly to Christchurch to work over this weekend in the Council's office.

New Zealand Architects Association has offered to pitch in with its expertise to help process consents. Professional Building Consultants in Auckland, who are already contracted to help the Council, will increase their capacity to process consents.

Mayor Parker said the offers had boosted the Council’s consent team’s morale. Staff from other teams within the Council have put their hand up to be reassigned to join the consents team to help out.

Further discussions between IANZ and Council today were positive and focused on moving forward, and the Council is determined to retain its accreditation as a Building Consent Authority.

“Yesterday I felt confident that we had not only already addressed many of the findings from International Accreditation New Zealand, but that all the concerns raised will be addressed by the due date of 28 June. Today I am even more proud of staff and heartened by the offers of help which I’m confident will get us over the line.”

ENDS

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