Environment Canterbury’s (ECan) has made headlines in recent months as it struggled with processing resource consents on time.
But chairperson Craig Pauling announced yesterday that staff had finished processing the last of the 1225 consents which were lodged before August 1 last year.
Some dated back to 2002.
Now all of those consents have either been decided or have an action plan in place for getting to a decision.
‘‘We couldn’t have done this without the tremendous effort of our staff/kaimahi and the applicants and their consultants who have worked with us to have their consents sorted,’’ Mr Pauling said.
‘‘Over the last year and a half, as we worked on the backlog, we have put in place several initiatives from hiring more staff, introducing new processes and automation, to working with consultants on lodging quality applications.
‘‘It is great to see that all this hard work has paid off.’’
But there was still work to do, he said.
As of November 28, staff reported just 48% of consents are being processed within the statutory 20-working day timeframe for this financial year.
It is well ahead of the 2023/24 financial year, which was just 26%.
Staff aim to get to 95% compliance by the 2025/26 financial year, but anticipate an influx of consent renewals over the next 12 months and have put plans in place.
‘‘With legacy consents addressed, we can now focus solely on the new applications and how we can further improve consenting delivery,’’ Mr Pauling said.
In October, staff received 35% more new applications than the month before and 2443 consents are due for renewal over the next four years.
Staff said the backlog was due to the ‘‘increasing complexity’’ of consent applications, the speed and complexity of new central government regulations, and the way land and water is used in Canterbury.
Last year the council voted to inject an extra $3.5 million to address the backlog.
The cost blew out to $5.4m.
The council has more than 26,000 active consents in Canterbury - more than any other regional council.
- By David Hill
Local Democracy Reporter
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
