Resource law 'burden for ratepayers' | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A new law designed to whip councils to work faster will only push the burden on to ratepayers, say local government authorities.
The clock is ticking for Wairarapa councils this week as a new law takes effect that forces councils to cut 1 per cent off the cost of a resource consent application for each day they are late _ to a maximum of 50 per cent.
Lawrence Yule, president of Local Government New Zealand, says small councils don't have the resources to process large, complex consents to a strict time limit.
''If you had a wind farm in Wairarapa for instance, there could be huge consenting costs.''
While the recession meant few resource consents were being lodged now, this would pick up in the next few years.
''As a way of minimising the risks of this regime councils may be tempted to take on more staff, which has a direct cost on ratepayers.''
The Masterton District Council had processed 73 resource consents this year, none of which had gone over the time limit.
However, resource planner Glenn Bunny agreed that while they could meet the volume now, they couldn't cope with huge volumes and complex applications in future.
Many applications were delayed because more information was needed from the applicant, but this sometimes required engineering or specialist expertise to know what was missing.
The solution being taken by several councils was to ensure applicants had all their information correct the first time _ but this may add stress for some. ''We could start becoming fairly rigid and say 'we want this and this and this' but we wouldn't want to penalise those people by making it any harder than it needs to be,'' Mr Bunny said.
Carterton District Council planning and regulatory manager Milan Hautler said that during the boom times ''we certainly weren't making the 100 per cent'' and potentially more staff would be needed if applications increased.
South Wairarapa District Council says it has a good turnaround of resource consents and wouldn't consider any staffing changes at this point.
Group manager planning and environment Rachel Hornsby said that from July 2009 to June 2010 the council had processed 97 per cent within the statutory timeframes.
''We are in an enviable position of having really good processing times and in fact we had a letter from the minister about that, congratulating us,'' she said.