2 Overview

Purpose

This report provides a summary of the results of a technical review of the building control operations of Porirua City Council (the Council) carried out between June 2004 and February 2007. The report outlines:

the role of the Department and the Council in regulatory building control
the methodology used in the review
the Department's key findings and recommendations
the Council's progress to action the Department's recommendations
areas requiring further improvement.

The Council

Porirua City Council has an estimated population of 50,300 (as of June 2003 statistics). The Council employs twelve building control staff to carry out its regulatory building control functions. The Department recognises during the course of the review that the Council has a challenging task in a busy building environment, as do many other territorial authorities.

Review process

Technical reviews involve a three-phased process designed to assist territorial authorities and building consent authorities to improve their regulatory building control operations. This process involves two on-site review visits (an initial review and a follow-up review) spaced over time to provide a measure of the Council's progress to implement the Department's recommendations. Reports were produced for both the initial review and the follow-up review. The third stage of the review is the publication of this summary report for the whole process.

Technical reviews are carried out by the Department's Consent Authority Capability and Performance Group, according to terms of reference that cover a range of capacity and capability issues.

Sections 3 to 5 of the report outline the methodology supporting technical reviews.

Key findings from the review

The initial review highlighted a significant number of areas for improvement across different components of the Council's building control operations. It found that the Council was not achieving a consistent level of compliance with the Building Code at all stages of the consent processing and inspection process. The review also identified a number of resource issues which were impacting on the Council's ability to ensure consistent compliance with the Building Code. In particular, the Council needed to address the limitations in the technical skills and knowledge of its building control staff and employ additional staff to meet existing vacancies.

While the Department found that the Council had developed a Policy and Procedures Manual, which covered a number of key building control processes, this needed to be further expanded and enhanced. In particular, the Council needed to improve its building consent processing and inspection methodologies and reassess its procedures for consent lodgement and vetting.

The Department returned to the Council in February 2007 to do a follow-up review. The review team found that the Council has successfully implemented a number of the recommendations made in the 2005 initial review report (see terms of reference 1, 3, 4.4, 8, 9 and 10). The Council partially implemented other recommendations made (see terms of reference 4.1- 4.3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 16 and 17). The Council has not implemented a number of other recommendations made in the initial review and some of the initial review recommendations have been reiterated (see terms of reference 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 8, 13 and 14).

Recent work undertaken after the review

The Council has recently been preparing for its accreditation assessment as a building consent authority. This is to meet the new regulatory scheme introduced under the Building Act 2004. The Council advises that this preparatory work has included a number of initiatives that it considers have partially or fully implemented a number of the Department's recommendations and further strengthened its building control operations. Two key initiatives include:

developing a Policy and Procedures Manual for all building control work, which covers all areas including training, auditing, procedures and checklists
instigating a Resource and Capability Review of the Building Control operations.

In addition, the Council advised it has made further progress in implementing the Department's recommendations through the following activities.

The introduction of a computer recording system to accurately track building consent applications
An internal review of checklists and information used to compile PIM information
Implementation of regular staff meetings and training sessions
Developing policies and procedures for restrictions and limitations on building consents and providing staff training on their application
The intention to train staff in accessibility compliance and have an officer accredited by Barrier Free NZ
The purchase of online access to technical documents for all staff
The provision of additional equipment for operational staff
The development of an electronic date/signature stamp to ensure appropriate document tracking