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Canterbury’s regional council has produced ‘‘a stellar’’ annual result, but is being hampered by Government reform, staff say.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) staff updated councillors on the progress of the council's 2025/26 annual report at a meeting on Wednesday, August 12, noting the council has achieved 33 of its 36 service measures.
ECan strategy and planning director Amy Allison said its service achievements were ‘‘a stellar result’’.
However, the council fell short on issuing consents within the regulatory timeframes and narrowly missed its 95 percent target for buses and ferries starting on time, she said.
While it scored itself highly for building resilience to natural hazards and public transport services, it was unable to achieve its regulatory targets due to Resource Management Act (RMA) reform.
Ms Allison said ECan processed 83.6% of consents on time, which was ‘‘herculean effort’’.
While this was well up on the 62.1% achieved last year, it fell short of the 95% target the council had set for itself.
But Cr Claire McKay said the council had come along way since a huge backlog two years ago.
‘‘We have invested a heck of a lot of money and time and effort, but there has been an impact from those legacy consents.’’
Cr McKay said 98.7% of consents lodged since January had been processed on time.
Cr Nettles Lamont said staff delivered a strong public transport result despite facing ‘‘massive fuel price spikes’’ and ‘‘a constrained fiscal environment’’.
Buses and ferries started on time 94.5% of the time, against a target of 95%.
This was due to navigating road works, increased congestion and traffic management around Te Kaha stadium events.
Cr Ian Mackenzie said the council achieved all of its community preparedness and hazard response targets on time and within budget, despite a large workload and staff pressures.
‘‘The resilience of staff when we have major events has been impressive. What puts staff under pressure were times when they were called into trouble shoot with upset and angry local communities.
‘‘The fact they do it and do it with such ability is a credit to them.’’
The council spent $39m on river and flood resilience works, funded jointly by Government and targeted rates.
The annual report is for the year ending June 30, 2026, so is prior to the recent Kaikōura storm.
ECan's performance measures were set by the council’s 2024/34 Long Term Plan and last year’s annual plan.
The final annual report will be adopted in October, once it has been audited.
david.hill@alliedmedia.co.nz
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