Southland District Council’s Building Team Setting the Pace

Southland District Council’s building control section has been given a glowing report from International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ).

Earlier in the month the section was assessed by IANZ as part of its requirement to meet building consent accreditation.

Since the leaky building problems first surfaced Government has introduced a numberof requirements in the Building Act 2004 and has placed an obligation on councils toseek accreditation as a building consent authority if that Council wishes to continueissuing building consents after 1 July 2008.

Acting Chief Executive Lindsay McKenzie said that the IANZ assessment/reportincluded the comment: “The Southland District Council’s motto of “People First”appears to be reflected in the attitudes both within the organisation and its relationswith the construction community.”

The assessment resulted in the issue of threecorrective action requests (CAR’s) which must be complied with before Council can become accredited (two of which have already been ticked off).

Council is confident the third CAR will be dealt with in the immediate future, and Council is likely to be accredited by mid October.

He went on to say, “One auditor said that out of 14 national local authorities he hadvisited, Southland District Council clearly had the best documentation to support applications for building consent that he had seen”.

In receiving this report at yesterday’s (subs September 26) Council meeting Mayor Frana and members of her Council extended congratulations to Building Control Team Leader Kevin O’Connor and his team on their collective achievements toward gaining accreditation.

Southland District Council is also likely to be the first localauthority in the South Island to gain accreditation.

Lindsay Mckenzie concluded by saying that “I would also like to acknowledge the tremendous effort Kevin and his team have put into the development of the necessarydocumentation, and the endless research and studies necessary to pass the courses toprove the respective competencies are held within the building section and lookforward to the day, in the near future, when confirmation of the accreditation isreceived”.