Long Term Community Plan 2012-2022 - Hurunui District Council

www.hurunui.govt.nz
Activity 3: Compliance and Regulatory Functions
Overview
The Compliance and Regulatory Functions activity includes the
Council’s:
• Building Controls
• Public Health and Liquor Licencing
• Animal Control
Current Situation
adopted in 2010. This new policy changed the way we address
earthquake prone buildings and we now have an active approach
to identifying and upgrading EPB’s. We have budgeted $23,000
for each of the first three years of this plan ($69,000 in total)
to have independent engineers’ assessments of approximately
90 identified earthquake prone buildings. This does not cover
the cost of actual building strengthening work. We consider this
to be an important piece of work to prevent the tragedies that
occurred after the 22 February 2011 earthquake following the
collapse of buildings.
We process and issue building consents, and inspect buildings
at several stages of their development to ensure that buildings
constructed are safe and comply with the New Zealand Building
Code. We issue between 400 and 650 building consents annually
for private buildings, public buildings, and businesses. In recent
years, the number of building consent applications has remained
consistent but at a low level with around 400 issued in 2010
and 2011. We expect to see an increase in those numbers in
coming years due to the effects of the Canterbury earthquakes
since 2010.
We also handle complaints made regarding building compliance
issues and administer the on going safety features of commercial
buildings though the building warrant of fitness regime.
Since the earthquakes, we have carried out a number of
earthquake assessments (available free to any Hurunui resident
concerned about the safety of their building). A number of
buildings have consequently been identified as dangerous and/
or needing repairs. We contributed to the “operation suburb”
conducted by the Department of Building and Housing shortly
after the 22 February 2010 Christchurch Earthquake.
Recruiting and retaining experienced building staff is an issue
for us (and the rest of New Zealand) due to the extra-ordinary
demand of building compliance staff in Christchurch and
Canterbury in general, for the ongoing assessments and re-build
of Christchurch since the main earthquakes.
Our private swimming pools are inspected to check that
they comply with the ‘Fencing of Swimming Pools Act’. New
Zealand has a history of accidental drownings and the Fencing
of Swimming Pools Act is a national initiative to drive down the
rate of drownings. Unfortunately, we have also had our share of
tragedy, and we need to make sure that private swimming pools
are safe and that owners have taken steps to prevent accidental
drownings in their pools. We audit one third of registered
private swimming pools annually.
Plans for the future
Building Controls
In 2011/12 we did a desk top study of earthquake prone
buildings (EPB’s) as per our Earthquake Prone Building Policy
We are required to become Building Consent Authorities (BCA)
or to contract a BCA to carry out building inspection work on
our behalf. Despite us becoming the third accredited BCA in the
country in 2007, accreditation has ongoing costs. Our building
officers have to be qualified and have quality assurance systems
which are used and maintained. Our systems are externally
audited every two years to ensure minimum standards are being
met on an ongoing basis.
We will continue to inspect private swimming pools once every
three years as we did encounter a high number of pool safety
issues requiring attention in previous pool audits.
Public Health & Liquor Licencing
Any growth in the district will continue to see an increase in
liquor license applications and managers’ certificates. Likewise
with health inspections as food premises and bars develop in
the area.
There will be a new environment for liquor and food safety
throughout the District with the Sale of Liquor Act 1989, the
Food Act 1981 and the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974 likely to
be superseded by new legislation in 2012. The implementation
phases of these new pieces of legislation will require close
liaison with licensees, managers and food premise operators.
The new liquor laws will require changes to the current District
Licensing Agency structure.
The new food legislation will require food service sector
premises, e.g. restaurant, hotels, cafes, takeaways and caterers, to
operate under Food Control Plans which are a risk management
based approach to food safety. While these are currently
voluntary, they have been promoted among local premises with
some now registered and operating under these plans.
Animal Control
We operate our dog control activity as per our dog policy and
bylaw. Both need to be reviewed in 2013. We are investigating
issuing infringement notices and charging fines to encourage
responsible behaviour by the few animal owners who do not
comply with the regulations.
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