Environment Canterbury has picked up the pace processing resource consents after finishing bottom of a Ministry for the Environment list in June and coming under fire about the time it was taking.
Of the consent applications decided over the past 12 months, nearly 80% met the statutory processing time frames, Environment Canterbury (ECan) acting chief executive Ken Taylor said yesterday.
That compares with just 29% in the ministry report covering the 2007-08 financial year.
A year ago, ECan thoroughly reviewed its consent processing procedures.
"It's great to see the improvements we made, and are continuing to make, are paying off," he said.
Yesterday's figures related to applications for consents receipted in the past 12 months.
ECan still had "a significant backlog" of about 1500 consent applications to work through.
Most of those had been notified.
"Every one we complete is a step in the right direction, but it does affect our timeframe compliance statistics because they have all been in the system for a long time," Mr Taylor said.
About 30% of the backlog consents were on hold with the agreement of the applicant.
ECan processes more than double the number of consents each year than any other regional council - about 3000.
"This has put real pressure on processing in recent years and we have struggled to keep up," he said.
It was not only the volume, but the fact anything to do with water tended to be complex and took more time because of the potential environmental impact and effect on people.
Between 2002 and 2008, consent applications increased from just over 2000 to 3763 a year, the largest increase in New Zealand, reflecting the demand for water in Canterbury.
Land consented for irrigation in the region increased at an average of 11% a year.
At the same time, groundwater zones in Canterbury were beginning to show the effects of dry summers and a growing number of water users sharing a scarcer resource.