Taking stock of our achievements

In this column I often discuss big-ticket projects the Council is working on. But with the end of the year fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time to update you on some of the smaller projects we are constantly engaged in to make our district a better place for all residents.

We have undertaken considerable work to better assist property owners and developers. This includes making our District Plan more accessible and easier to understand. Our online version was a huge advance on the paper-based plan, but our resource consents staff still respond to about 4500 enquiries a year from customers needing help. In September, we unveiled a new digital format of the District Plan to planning and building industry professionals. The new isoplan e-plan features much-improved searchability, pop-up terms and definitions, and embedded links to help users navigate within the plan and to external documents. It is also compatible with other district plans across the country. Industry practitioners are now providing feedback to help finetune the e-plan before we make it public.

Delivery of building consents is another area where we have seen significant improvements. Following their recent audit, International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) confirmed on-going accreditation of our Building Consent Authority until October 2022 subject to addressing a few small non-compliances. The Building Team is now taking 13 days on average to process consent applications and has processed 99.38 per cent of applications within the 20-day statutory timeframe since 1 July. This result was greatly assisted by our business intelligence and online services teams.

Technology developments are also helping to make our staff safer. We are now rolling out GPS vehicle trackers and lone worker personal alarms to our animal management officers and other field workers. Animal management officers are one of our teams that often work in remote locations where cell phone coverage is patchy or non-existent. This poses a significant health and safety risk for staff dealing with potentially dangerous animals, or members of the public in what can be emotionally charged situations. So far, we have installed GPS units to 14 vehicles. Personal alarms linked to satellites are also being allocated. Once activated, the alarms send the exact location of the staff member via satellite to an external monitoring service and emergency services can be deployed.

Finally, CouncilMARK assessors spent three days last week auditing progress made by the Council since we were first assessed under the local government excellence programme in 2017. They met with more than 50 elected members, staff and stakeholders to discuss our performance in governance, financial management, communications and service delivery, and asset management. FNDC was one of the first councils assessed by the benchmarking programme, which aims to give communities a clear and independent picture of how well their council is serving them. We received a B grade in 2017, but I am confident the report due to be delivered early next year will show considerable improvement. Watch this space.