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Published on 02 March 2022
Waitaki District Council building services are in the top six councils in the country for speedy processing of Building Consents; Council’s team processing 99.7% of the consents coming its way and taking an average of just 8 days of the 20 allotted to do so, according to a report just released by MBIE on Building Consent Authority statutory performance in the period March-September 2021.
Waitaki’s Heritage, Environment and Regulatory Acting Group Manager Roger Cook said, “The data published by MBIE this morning shows Waitaki District Building Consent Authority is one of the top performing in the country. In recent years we have worked hard to build the capability and capacity of the team. In 2018 we established the Waitaki Building Forum to create a pathway for industry feedback. We listened to what they had to say about time frames and the cost to industry and ultimately consumers and made changes. In 2018 we digitised consent processing and inspection recording which improved efficiency. The building team are continually looking for ways to improve service, examples being the adoption of virtual inspection capability for selected inspections to reduce travelling time and ensure continuity of service in the current pandemic.”
Co-founder of McBrimar Homes, Mike Lowe, a member of the Building Forum said, “I think the good thing about the team is that they’re fairly approachable - you can just pick up the phone. The key thing for us is the processing times. This helps our planning and being able to schedule things, when everything is extremely difficult to plan in the current environment. I congratulate the team on how their processes have evolved in the last 3 years, they’ve really turned it around it.”
Waitaki’s Chief Executive Alex Parmley said, “The building industry is a really vital part of our local economy, providing new homes, commercial space and supporting our farming community. Ensuring a timely building regulation service is an important way we are supporting our local businesses and economy. It is great to see the performance of our service which is a huge credit to the team and the effort they have put in.”