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2 Introduction

This report presents the findings of a second round of reviews of council performance following the results of the 2005/06 Resource Management Act Biennial Survey of Local Authorities (“the survey”).

The survey revealed a decline in performance of councils in meeting statutory timeframes for processing resource consents as set out in the Resource Management Act 1991. During the 2003/04 survey period 77 per cent of the 54,658 resource consent applications were processed within statutory timeframes. This dropped to 73 per cent of the 51,768 resource consent applications processed during the 2005/06 survey period.

In light of the declining survey trend, the Minister for the Environment directed the Secretary for the Environment to conduct an immediate review of several councils to explore the reasons for the decline.

Five councils were selected to participate in the first round of reviews:

  • Franklin District Council

  • Kaipara District Council

  • Manukau City Council

  • Taupo District Council

  • Waimakariri District Council.

These councils were not the five worst performers but rather a representative sample of councils who had either a low level of timeframe compliance and/or showed a high use of Section 92. Frequent use of Section 92 may be indicative of underlying processing issues that are not readily apparent when simply looking at the working day figures. The results of the first round of reviews are reported in A Review of Council RMA resource consent processing performance – Round One.

The second round of reviews focused on six poor performers. For the purpose of this review ‘poor performers’ are defined as councils who have less than 60 per cent compliance with statutory timeframes. The councils selected to participate in the second round of reviews were:

  • Auckland City Council

  • Tauranga City Council

  • Kaikoura District Council

  • Grey District Council

  • Timaru District Council (as part of a targeted assistance project)

  • Westland District Council (as part of a targeted assistance project).

The 2005/06 survey results for the participating councils were:

 

Number of consents processed

% of consents processed within statutory timeframes

Use of section 92

Use of section 37 4

% of consents processed on a non-notified basis

Auckland City

6,057

52.07%

29.50%

0.16%

99%

Tauranga City

450

56.22%

60.89%

3.33%

91%

Kaikoura District

97

49.48%

36.08%

Do not use

89%

Grey District

144

52.78%

55.56%

26.38%

94%

Westland District

155

55.48%

14.19%

Do not use

95%

Timaru District

Data not provided

Data not provided

Data not provided

Data not provided

Data not provided

4 Under Section 37 of the RMA, a council may extend a time period specified in the RMA. A time period may be extended for a time not exceeding twice the maximum time period; or a time exceeding twice the maximum time period if the applicant requests or agrees.

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