QLDC recruiting more building control staff

Queenstown Lakes District Council is recruiting more staff for its building control unit to deal with the high volume of consent applications, as most are still taking longer than the statutory 20 working days to process.

Latest figures show that between January and the end of May 2016, QLDC received 754 applications for building consents of all kinds, which is well up on the 575 received during the same period in 2015. Last month alone, 173 applications poured in.

General Manager Planning and Development, Tony Avery said in May just 29 percent of applications were processed within 20 working days. In February, QLDC 83 percent were being processed within that timeframe; 80 percent in March, and by April it was 46 percent.

This was disappointing for the Council and frustrating for applicants, Mr Avery said. However, the May figures were not a surprise because the slow processing times were among the problem areas highlighted by IANZ inspectors earlier this year, and must improve if QLDC is to keep its accreditation.

“We knew that the situation might get worse before it started to get better,” Mr Avery said.

Since then, the Council has begun implementing its corrective action plan, which includes recruiting six new staff in the building control unit. In the meantime, existing staff have been working overtime and more external contractors have been engaged to process applications.

Building Services Manager Stewart Geddes said applications were now being triaged when they were first received, with the simplest matters such as installing or replacing a solid fuel heater being dealt with almost immediately. He was confident that this would improve the average processing time when the June figures were compiled.

“We know how frustrating delays are to people wanting to get on with their projects,” he said. “We are doing everything possible to reduce the time it takes to process the applications and give each one the consideration it needs.”

Mr Geddes said that processing applications for building consents was a skilled job and there was a small pool of qualified people who were also being sought after by other councils as a Nationwide shortage of Building Officers continued.

“This is not a new problem and the knock-on effect on our processing times is one of the matters that IANZ requires us to address as a condition of retaining our accreditation. We are being open about the situation and advising the community that they can help us to help them by getting their applications in sooner rather than later, and also booking building inspections well ahead.

ENDS

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