Whakatane District Council registered as building consent authority

Whakatane District Council has been registered by the Department of Building and Housing as a building consent authority under the Building Act 2004. It becomes the 23rd council to be successfully accredited and registered.

The Council’s Chief Executive Diane Turner says achieving accreditation and registration has been the result of hard work and commitment by building control staff.

“They have worked to ensure we gained accreditation, while also delivering normal services to our customers. It has not been an easy task and we are proud that we have achieved”. “We can now look to ensuring that accreditation works to delivery of a quality service”.

Councils can be registered by the Department once they are accredited by International Accreditation New Zealand as meeting regulated standards for performing their building control functions.

The Building Consent Authority Accreditation and Registration Scheme is among Building Act 2004 reforms aimed at ensuring buildings are built right first time. It focuses on strengthening the building process at the consent processing, inspection and approval stages – ie, making sure that Councils have appropriate systems and processes, resources and equipment, and improved technical capability to do the job properly.

All 85 councils must be accredited and registered as building consent authorities by 31 March 2009 or have transferred their building control functions to an accredited and registered building consent authority, which 10 Councils currently intend doing.

Whakatane District Council has now been entered on the Department of Building and Housing’s online, publicly accessible register of building consent authorities - www.dbh.govt.nz/bca-register-n-z