The Central Otago District Council plans to introduce a new method of handling building and planning consents which promises to cut costs and the time taken to process consents.
Ongoing growth in the district meant annual rates rises of close to 10% per annum, and complying with national standards such as health regulations and the new water standard meant more pressure on ratepayers, the council was told yesterday.
Chief executive John Cooney outlined how the traditional management system for operating a business generated waste.
Researching alternative methods and carrying out trials of the Vanguard method of handling building and planning consents resulted in positive customer feedback.
Roading and consents would be the first part of the council's operation investigated, with Transit New Zealand already agreeing to fund 51% of the roading part of the programme and keen to be involved in the new programme.
Councillors spent some time yesterday discussing the costs of implementing the Vanguard method.
To fund the programme, $100,000 would come from existing training budgets $25,000 from the existing process improvement budget $100,000 from the building consents budget surplus and an internal loan of $140,000 would be repaid from the savings generated by the programme.
Earlier in the day, the council had considered a report from corporate services manager Heather Kinsey outlining actions the council needed to take to ensure it continued to remain debt-free with cash in the bank.
She listed 10 recommendations, all of which the council agreed to implement.
They included a ‘‘root and branch review of all council's activities, being more ruthless when asked to fund significant items during the year and a review of the revenue and financing policy''.
Mr Cooney said if the council did not do something about costs, ratepayers would continue to feel the impact of those costs.
Ms Kinsey said the CODC was in a good position relative to many other councils, but because of increasing pressure from growth and compliance costs, it needed to take action to ensure it stayed in a good position.
