Drop off in Whanganui building consents over last months of 2022

The number of building consents issued by Whanganui District Council decreased during 2022. Photo / Bevan Conley

The number of building consents issued by the Whanganui District Council decreased during the later months of 2022.

Council inspectors issued 60 consents in October and completed 45 per cent of the applications within the statutory 20 day period.

It was a stark contrast to May 2022 when 121 consents were issued and 89.3 per cent were completed within 20 days.

Council compliance operations manager Jason Shailer said the sector had been especially buoyant during the early part of the year and some larger developments had boosted the numbers.

He said the council’s planning and building teams had lost some valuable members due to retirement and some had taken up attractive offers in the Government and private sectors.

“The average processing time for building consents is lower than expected, because of staff shortages in planning and building teams,” Shailer said.

“We are actively recruiting for staff in these areas.

“A planner was successfully recruited in August and the council has also engaged external planning consultants to process land use and subdivision applications.”

Whanganui District Council's regulatory and planning group manager Jason Shailer. Photo / NZME

Earlier in 2022, Shailer reported that there had been 215 building consents issued during the three months from February 1 to April 30 and 98.8 per cent of those were processed within 20 days.

And the council teams were still busy in June when compliance officers issued 201 consents over the two-month period ending on June 30.

In August the council’s property and finance services committee was informed that the team had been affected by staff absences due to illness over the two-month period, while also trying to fill vacancies.

The council’s building control manager, Greg Hoobin explained that not all the consents would have been for new builds and some would have been issued for renovations such as the installation of log burners.

He said the building team staffing levels were a bit of a “moving beast” at the time as one member had left and another was due to retire.

Hoobin said he was the chairman of a regional cluster group of senior building control officers, sharing expertise with Rangitīkei and Ruapehu representatives.

”The pool of qualified, competent building inspectors is dropping exponentially because of age and that’s our biggest problem,” he said.

A cadet programme within the council team was intended to grow local expertise but the progress could not be rushed he said.

The council team completed 261 consents during the three-month period ending on September 30.

Shailer said there would be renewed efforts to recruit more staff in 2023.