Taupō District Council scores 100 percent in resource consent turn around

Minister for the Environment, Nick Smith, has released the results of the annual Resource Management Act Survey of Local Authorities report which shows Taupō District Council (TDC) has processed all of its resource consents for the past financial year within the statutory timeframe.

Under the Resource Management Act (RMA) local authorities are required to process resource consents within 20 working days of submission. The annual survey is undertaken by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) to monitor councils’ performance and give an overall picture of how the RMA is working in practice.

In the year from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011 Taupō District Council processed 100 percent of the resource consents submitted within the 20 working day period. TDC is one of only 16 councils in the country to achieve a perfect record.

Group Manager Operational Services, Gareth Green, says the result is a reflection of hard work and the continuous process of improvement. “We are delighted to be one of the few councils to have achieved this result. We have been doing a lot of work on our systems and processes to enable this to occur and to provide top customer service.”

Mr Green says Council is continually trying to improve its RMA processes. “We welcome any feedback on how things could be done even better.”