Southland District Council registered as a building consent authority

Southland District Council has been registered as a building consent authority.

The Council was the sixth to be accredited as a building consent authority in New Zealand and the first in the lower South Island and has now been entered on the Department of Building and Housing’s register of building consent authorities - www.dbh.govt.nz/bca-register-n-z .

The Department’s Chief Executive, Katrina Bach, hosted a presentation in Wellingtonlast Friday (2 November 2007), the day after regulations covering the registration of building consent authorities took effect, to present representatives of accreditedterritorial authorities with their Council’s registration certificate.

The Building Consent Authority Accreditation and Registration Scheme is among Building Act 2004 reforms aimed at ensuring buildings are built right first time.

All 85 territorial or regional authorities must be accredited and registered as building consent authorities by 30 June 2008 or have transferred their building control functions to an accredited and registered building consent authority, which 10 currently intend doing.

Southland District Council Manager Building Control Kevin O’Connor said he was very proud of the effort of his team to meet the original deadlines for gainingaccreditation.

“It was a tremendous effort by all involved and ensures that Southland is up there with any other local authority in the country”, he said