IANZ Audit

Under the Building Act 2004 Council is required to be an accredited Building Consent Authority in order to process Building Consents. To achieve and maintain this Council building control systems must be audited by International Accreditation NZ (IANZ) every two years. IANZ spend two to three days going over the entire process and systems for dealing with building consents. This audit process was put in place by Government to ensure that high quality and consistent decisions are made on building consents through the country. Typically the audit results in a number of identified faults which must be corrected to allow the system to be passed – usually 6 – 12.

The Stratford District Council 2011 IANZ audit resulted in only one very simple document correction. Council has been audited by IANZ three times and its Quality System has never been faulted with the only corrections being minor process or document ones. The Stratford District Council has a small extremely efficient team of three who process all Building and Planning Consents – typically 70 planning consents and 350 building consents on average each year. The IANZ audit result confirms that this team provides an extremely high quality service to the building industry in the Stratford District and shows very clearly that small rural Councils can do the job better than many of the larger Councils. The level of service given by the consents team to the local community is one of which the community can be justifiably proud.


Dog Control and Public Places Bylaw
Council has received complaints regarding dogs being walked in and around Prospero Place and footpaths along Broadway between the roundabouts within the central retail shopping area.
Long Term Planning for our Sewerage System
Council provides a sewerage system for the Stratford community, and the customer base ranges from individual houses to commercial and industrial premises with trade waste. Other ratepayers within our district have their own individual on site septic tanks.
Improvements on Stratford District Roads
Stratford District Council is making its annual request to residents to help identify areas on local roads for minor improvement works.
Changes to the Builder Licensing Requirements
Homeowners will need to ensure for new house construction or larger building alterations that they engage a builder who is licensed.