The Dunedin City Council is again outsourcing the processing of some building consents to Invercargill as it struggles to keep up with a fresh spike in applications.
Council building services manager Neil McLeod confirmed the number of consents being processed within the required 20 working days had dropped to 80%, after hovering close to 100% in recent months.
The drop was because of ''a bit of a spike'' in applications received by council staff last month, Mr McLeod said.
As a result, the DCC had opted to send some consents to the Southland District Council for processing, and expected to return to 100% in-house pro-cessing ''towards the end of next week'', he said.
It was not the first time the council had been forced to outsource some of its work to keep pace this year, after using external contractors ''on and off for most of the year'', Mr McLeod said.
That included sending about 10 consents to the Southland District Council for processing in June.
The outsourcing meant overall processing rates for the year remained about 98%, including 98.48% in September and 96.1% in October, he said.
The council's building services unit was resourced to deal with a ''base level'' of applications, and sudden spikes required the use of accredited outside organisations, Mr McLeod said.
Unfortunately, the Christchurch City Council's consent processing problems meant it was absorbing ''almost all of the country's spare capacity'', Mr McLeod said.
''It is a bit difficult to find someone to assist when we do get a spike in applications. Southland does not have enough spare capacity to service all of our needs, but we are grateful for what they can provide.''
Despite recent problems, the DCC had been recommended for reaccreditation by International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) after a three-day visit in September, he said.
IANZ staff were happy with the council's clearance rate, he said.
