A national survey released today indicates that Rodney District Council has made significant reductions in resource consent processing timeframes over the past two years.
A Ministry of the Environment survey comparing the performance of 84 local authorities found that Rodney District Council has sped up the national rankings for resource consent processing times and is now ranked the 29th fastest Council in terms of processing resource consents.
This is a significant improvement of 39 places since the last survey (completed in 2005/06) when the Council was ranked 68th fastest.
In the year to June 2008 the Council processed 84% of resource consents within the statutory timeframe, compared to the national average of 69%. Since that time the Council has been working on making further improvements to consent processing and in May managed to process 100% of consents on time.
Rodney Mayor Penny Webster is delighted with the survey results. Since her election in 2007 she has advocated for consent processes to be streamlined and made more user friendly.
“We recognised that Rodney is extremely attractive as a place to live and work but that we really needed to work harder to improve our services and make it faster and easier for people to obtain a consent.”
“These improvements will make a real difference to hundreds of people who apply for resource consents each year and are now able to obtain them much quicker. They also make Rodney much more attractive as a location for new businesses. “
The Council’s Customer Services Director Lloyd Barton says the Council is now looking at whether greater efficiencies can be made which would allow fees to be minimised.
“We are looking at making further improvements to the service to simplify the process of applying for consent through reducing the amount of paperwork. We will also be reviewing our systems to see whether we can make further reductions in processing times.”
Mayor Webster thanked Council staff for their work in developing and implementing the service improvements which had reduced consent processing times.
For more information about the survey visit: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/rma/annual-survey/2007-2008
ENDS
For further comment please contact:
Lloyd Barton
Rodney District Council
Phone 0800 426 5169
Lloyd.barton@rodney.govt.nz