2011-2012 Annual Report - Full Version - PDF - Palmerston North ...

District Licensing Agency staff have workedclosely with premise owners and the Police onthe development of the CBD Hospitality Charter.The aim of the charter is to reduce alcohol relatedincidents and associated harm in the Main Streetarea between The Square and Princess Street.In terms of 2012/13 the focus will be on meetingcurrent service levels by working smarter andcontinuing the rollout of the CBD HospitalityCharter. District Licensing Agency staff will beclosely monitoring Alcohol Reform Bill progressand Environmental Health Officers will monitorthe Food Bill. Though it is likely that the AlcoholReform Bill and Food Bill will be passed byParliament during 2012/13, it is unlikely that therelated regulations will be implemented for afurther 1 to 2 years.Resource ConsentsA key highlight was the completion of the initialphase of a quality management review of processesand forms. This helped strengthen and streamlineprocedures in line with current good practice.The 2010/11 survey of local authorities by theMinistry of the Environment noted that nationallyonly 77% of consents were processed on time. Asignificant effort has been made by staff during2011/12 on improving procedures and themonitoring of performance indicators. The resulthas been very positive, with 98% of consentsprocessed on time. A key success was that from 1December 2011 to 31 May 2012 100% of consentswere processed on time.The focus for 2012/13 will be on assisting thePolicy team in its review of the District Plan soas to identify issues that need addressing; tomanage costs, particularly in terms of legal issues;to provide a facilitative approach for customerinquiries on land development proposals andresource consent applications; and to work closelywith consultants and the public so that rules ofthe current District Plan are conveyed clearly anddecisions occur in a timely manner. Planningliaison group meetings will continue to be heldwith consultants to share information and obtainfeedback related to consent processing and rules.Major issues relating to Regulatoryinclude:Leaky Homes - The Council is a member ofRiskPool, a local government mutual liabilityorganisation. Due to the ‘Leaky Home’ claims,RiskPool has experienced deficits in past schemeyears and has made calls on its members to fundthose deficits. The budget for 2011/12 includedprovision of $150K to cover any ‘leaky home’claims or calls from RiskPool, plus a provision of$688K carried forward from previous years. During2011/12 a RiskPool call of $262K was paid as wellas $134K to settle three ‘leaky home’ claims. Thisleaves a provision of $442K to be carried forwardto 2012/13 plus a $400K budget allocation to coverfuture RiskPool calls and ‘leaky homes’ claims.As at 30 June 2012 there is one current WHRS claimoutstanding.Under the DBH government website the Councilhas active claims by Territorial Authority - thenumber of properties with active claims as at 30June 2012 is five.Council has become part of the FAP (FinancialAssistance Programme) from July 2011. At thepresent time the Council has four claims receivedwith two declined plus potentially one other.Earthquake Prone Buildings - During the yearassessments were undertaken of 135 buildingsthat were mostly of an unreinforced masonry typeconstructed prior to 1976. From these assessments109 were identified as being earthquake prone.This was determined by a building having anassessment score of less than 33% of the nationalbuilding standards. A well-received meeting washeld with affected property owners and tenantsand other key interested parties on 7 and 8 May2012 to outline the findings from the assessments.They were advised that the earthquake pronebuilding list was to be released to the general publicsoon after and be updated as work progressed onthe assessments. It is part of a six year project within excess of 450 buildings still to be assessed.Accreditation under the Building Act - Thefocus during the year was to identify best practiceimprovement opportunities in terms of existingprocedures and policies and to ensure relevanttechnical audits were undertaken to identifytraining opportunities. For 2012/13 the focus willbe on preparing for the planned bi-annual auditdue in April 2013.What the Council Does RegulatoryEnvironmentalSustainability...Palmerston North City Council Annual Report 2011/1289