New discounts for RMA delays

Ratepayers could end up paying the penalties if Marlborough District Council doesn't process a resource consent application within deadline.

From July 31, new rules under the Resource Management Act mean anyone whose consent application is not dealt with on time could get a 1 per cent discount each day outside the deadline, up to a total of 50 per cent.

The move, aimed to crack down on the number of overdue resource consents throughout the country, follows the Government's reform of the Resource Management Act last year.

But Marlborough council regulatory manager Hans Versteegh said he did not expect the move to have a big impact here because the council met the deadline most of the time.

Under the new rules, the council would probably end up giving away about $5000 in discounts, which would come from the council's rates fund, he said.

Consent applications must be processed within 20 working days if they are non-notified, 50 working days if they have to be publicly advertised, 40 working days if they are non-notified and a hearing is held, and 70 working days if they are notified and a hearing is held.

Last year a government report showed just 53 per cent of consent applications to Marlborough District Council during 2007 and 2008 were processed within deadline, putting it among the bottom 25 per cent of councils.

Mr Versteegh said the council had lifted its performance to 99.1 per cent of applications.

Resource consent applications had dropped from 2400 in 2007 to about 1100 for the past financial year, but Mr Versteegh said this had not affected the processing rate because staff numbers had also reduced. The recession meant staff who left were not replaced, reducing resource consent staff from 24 to about 17.

The council had changed the way it processed resource consent applications so administration work was done at the end of the process, rather than during, Mr Versteegh said.

A resource consent application could cost from $200, for a small variation to an existing consent, to $2.2 million for the proposed TrustPower hydro scheme in the Wairau Valley.

The council had also tightened its standard for resource consents and did not accept incomplete applications, Mr Versteegh said.

People were advised to use professional consultants to help prepare their consents, he said.

"It's not an easy process and there are lots of legal traps."

- The Marlborough Express

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