DCC building services manager Neil McLeod told the Otago Daily Times there were no plans to join other councils in offering help to Christchurch City Council (CCC).
That was because the DCC had been forced to outsource the processing of some of its own consents, this time to Invercargill City Council, he said.
DCC building services staff had been unable to keep pace with a sudden spike in consent applications, in part because some were on staff training while others were on leave, Mr McLeod said.
This month, the team was processing consent applications in 9.8 days on average and had processed 100% within the required time frame of 20 working days, he said. However, those figures could have taken a hit if some consent processing was not outsourced to Invercargill. About 10 consents were sent south earlier this week, but the problem was expected to be resolved within days, he said.
The situation meant the DCC was not able to help the CCC, which was facing consent-processing delays that threatened its consent authority status.
International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) had warned the CCC last week it faced being stripped of its accreditation, prompting the Government to step in.
Staff from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) had been send to join the CCC consenting department to help speed up the flow of consent approvals.
CCC staff had also fielded offers to assist from other councils throughout the country, including the Auckland Council, which had in the past dealt with an overflow of consent work coming from Dunedin. That was why Dunedin's extra workload was this time sent south to Invercargill.
The DCC building services department processed 100% of consents within 20 working days until May, Mr McLeod said. In May, a spike in applications saw ''a few'' consents slip over the 20 working day deadline, but the average processing time remained about 9.7 days, with about 98% of all consents processed within 20 working days, he said.
However, the combination of factors facing the team in recent days meant this month's average processing time and completion rates could have ''taken a hit'' without outsourcing some of the work, Mr McLeod said.
The cost and time involved remained the same for the applicants, who paid their fees to the council processing them instead of the DCC, he said.
It was hoped the completion of staff training within the DCC's revamped building services department would mean outsourcing would not required in future, he said.
