Western Bay of Plenty council says easier, more efficient building consenting is coming

Western Bay of Plenty has a plan to speed up the time taken to get building consent via a streamlined and real-time platform. Photo / Bevan Conley

A new online building consenting system is on the way, and it promises to make life a little easier for those in the building business.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council will switch to ‘Objective Build’ in late March/early April 2023, providing a streamlined and real-time platform to track building consent progress online and receive a notification when there’s an update.

All new and existing building consents will be moved to the new system.

Council’s building services manager, Nigel Mogford says Objective Build shows our commitment to giving our customers a more user-friendly, and transparent experience.

“There’s no doubt the Western Bay has been growing quickly. We’re processing upwards of 1300 building consents each year. And we’re committed to ensuring that our systems and processes work well and that our customers have a great experience. This technology can help with that.

“Simple things like knowing where your consent is in the process, being able to track its progress online, and receiving a notification when there’s an update – will give clarity to the process and remove stress and unnecessary admin.”

The new system promises to be very simple and easy to use for new and first-time consent applicants. And applicants with consents still in-progress will be migrated over automatically. You’ll receive an email on our go-live date, which will take you to a webpage where you can create your account.

As with all new systems, it will be a big change and our team are keen to ease any concerns, by providing in-person and online demonstrations of how Objective Build works. There will be an Objective Build expert on hand at each session to answer any pātai.

All are welcome to join us at any of our information sessions (about 1hr). Register for any of these events by emailing buildingcomms@westernbay.govt.nz

Barkes Corner demonstration session

Friday, March 17, 9-10am

Online webinar

Monday, March 20, 12-1pm