A small Lawrence parish was given some divine intervention from the Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Board recently when it won support to have the cost of a long-standing resource consent halved.
The Holy Trinity Anglican Church was given subdivision consent in August 2004 to separate the church building from the hall.
The consent stipulated water and sewerage be provided to the church lot as well.
At that time, the parish expressed concerns about the total cost of the works, estimated at $2880, and asked for the consent to be delayed but paperwork on this was never finished.
The consent lapsed in October 2008 because of a statutory three-year deadline.
The parish applied for a new consent which was granted in March but discovered the cost of financial contributions to the council had more than doubled to $6368.
In a report to the board meeting last Wednesday, council planning and environment manager Murray Brass said the issue had arisen because of the time between when the first and second consents were issued.
"It would have been beyond staff delegations to reduce the financial contributions so the parish has applied to the community board."
Consents lapse after five years and the fees attached to them last that period, he said.
Generally, this was to the advantage of the consent holder as financial contributions usually rose over time.
In this case, the parish had been "caught out".
Mr Brass noted the parish was a community group rather than a private or commercial developer.
"However, the board also needs to be aware that making a reduction would be contrary to normal policy. An exception should only be made if the board is satisfied that the circumstances are sufficiently unusual that it does not create a precedent."
Board chairman Geoff Davidson said the board agreed to support the church in its bid because it was a community service group and it sympathised with its situation.
The board's recommendation will go to the next full council meeting.
