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3 Review Methodology

The second round of reviews used the same methodology as the first round of reviews, including the same set of key areas and questions (refer to Appendix 1). The questions were structured around the main factors that influence council’s ability to meet statutory timeframes. These were:

  • activities that generate the workload

  • public guidance

  • resource consent process

  • people

  • tools

  • reporting

  • general context.

The on-site portion of the review involved teams from the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) spending an average of three days at each council. While on-site the teams discussed the resource consents process and practice with council staff. The teams also reviewed council systems, assessed databases, assessed file information and undertook analysis of findings and data. For Timaru District Council and Westland District Council this was conducted in conjunction with a targeted assistance project. Councils were asked to provide their most recent processing statistics prior to the on-site portion of the review so that current performance could be reviewed.

MfE staff focused on identifying the barriers to making decisions on resource consent applications within statutory timeframes by specifically asking the question “where do the days go and why?”.

The review looked nine months beyond the survey period to see if:

  • the council had changed their processes to improve performance

  • the survey results reflected circumstances that existed at the time but now no longer exist.

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