Chch seeks to restore consent approval
Christchurch City Council wants its stamp of approval for handing out building consents back.
The council has applied for its International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) accreditation as a building consent authority, 11 months after it was stripped of its accreditation for what IANZ said were serious flaws in its processes.
Crown manager Doug Martin, appointed last July to oversee consents, says an action plan produced soon after he started made it clear change was needed.
"Since then we have made excellent progress in scaling up the council's building control operation to meet the increased demand for building consents," he said.
"We have totally revamped the way that we operate in the building consents area."
Changes include a new team and new procedures for processing consents.
A team of IANZ assessors will start auditing the council's revised processes from July 8.
The council faces a huge increase in demand for building consents and has continued to issue them despite losing its IANZ accreditation.
It issued commercial and residential consents worth $2.28 billion in the year to April 30, up from $1.13 billion the previous year.
