Celebrating our success: Committee hears we’re on track with performance and consents delivery

The meeting started with Te Rūnanga o Waihao chair Dardanelle McLean-Smith speaking to the Committee about nitrates.

Core services performance report for quarter one – we’re on track!

Our performance report was presented to the Committee which highlighted our progress for the first quarter of the financial year (July-September 2024).

The purpose of the report is to give assurance to the Regional Delivery Committee that our core services are being effectively delivered as per the service measures and budgets agreed in the Long-Term Plan 2024-23/Te Mahere Pae Tawhiti 2024-34.

All our service measures were either on track or have surveys planned for later in the year.

Highlights from the report across our core services this quarter:

Other achievements

Progress on the sustainable consent delivery plan

Councillors heard from kaimahi (staff) that we’re on track with addressing all legacy consents (those lodged before 1 August 2023) by the end of this year.

To the end of September 2024, there has been a reduction of 72.5% in legacy applications in process, compared with a 69% reduction by the end of August.

What do these numbers mean?

We had 1225 legacy consents on 1 August 2023 and as of 11 November, we have left 228 consents.

General Manager Regulatory Implementation Paul Hulse told councillors that all of the remaining consents have an action plan in place and kaimahi are confident the backlog will be gone by the end of December.

Compliance with overall statutory timeframes is improving and we expect this to continue.

As reported in the quarter one performance report, the consenting timeframe compliance for the first quarter (July – September 2024) was 49.9%, compared with 26% for the 2023/24 financial year.

It is expected that statutory timeframe compliance will continue to improve as the backlog is addressed and that these timeframes will be met for most applications from the end of 2024.

35% more new consent applications

It was also shared with councillors that there has been an increase in new applications in recent months.

In October, we received 35% more new applications than the month before. We expect this increase to continue as more consents are due for renewal.

The next steps in the implementation of the consent delivery plan include the continuation of a proactive, catchment-based approach to anticipated applications for consent renewals.

There will also be a focus on finding greater alignment between consent and compliance functions.

Compliance work update

Councillors were pleased to hear about the progress to date with the transformation of our compliance service.

They heard about the work underway that looks at better integration of planning, consenting and compliance, and we told them that we’re identifying how best to identify risk areas and activities that require monitoring, while also making sure that we help resource users better understand how they can demonstrate their compliance.

New compliance risk matrix to support reporting on the new service measure

Kaimahi presented councillors with a new compliance risk matrix which has been developed as part of the compliance improvement project.

The matrix will help us build a better understanding of the compliance status of resource use across Canterbury/Waitaha by assessing both the inherent risk of the use and the management of that risk.

The new matrix aims to serve several purposes, including helping with reporting on the new service measure 5 in the Long-Term Plan.

The matrix will also help with prioritising our monitoring programme either by where on the ground we need to focus more, or what resource users need more information to be enabled to better demonstrate their compliance.

When considering the use of the risk matrix, it can be done in different ways, from looking at risk by consent in a place, e.g. Rakaia catchment; risk by consent type, e.g. water or risk by activity, dairy farm.

The next report to the Regional Delivery Committee on current compliance and incident response work and the progress of the compliance improvement project will be in early 2025.

Air quality monitoring

Over the last decade, air quality has improved considerably.

Councillors heard that poor air quality typically occurs in winter due to home heating emissions.

They also heard that:

• Air quality pollutant standards were exceeded in all airsheds except Waimate, Geraldine and Rangiora in 2024.
• The Clean Air Work Programme is delivered within the Environmental Regulation and Protection core service and focuses on ensuring low-emission burners are authorised, and the community is supported to transition to cleaner forms of heating and good burning practices are occurring.
• Financial assistance is provided to mitigate any unintended negative impacts on households with limited means due to the rules.

Progress of the Clean Air Work Programme

• Our annual winter home heating education campaign focuses on the importance of reducing smoke from home heating by using better burning techniques and good wood inefficient, well-maintained burners.
• Kaimahi noted that we respond to smoky chimney complaints using a tiered, education-first approach and offering financial support to eligible households via firewood and home heating subsidies.
• Noting that PM₁₀ exceedances in Washdyke occur most months o the year, kaimahi pointed out the main sources of pollution in Washdyke include dust from vehicle movements on unpaved areas and sea salt, whereas the main pollution source in other airsheds in the region is smoke from home heating.
• As part of our transition to the core services model, home heating reporting will be combined with other air quality reporting, including information about dust, to create holistic air quality reporting.
• Questions were asked about air quality monitoring stations currently located in Waimate and Geraldine, which have not exceeded the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality (NESAQ) for more than five years each.
• Councillors asked if they could be relocated to areas where there are known issues with dust. It was noted that relocating the stations could be an issue when PM_2.5 standards are eventually introduced by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) and that PM_2.5 concentrations in Waimate and Geraldine are still higher than targets in the Canterbury Air Regional Plan.
• Councillors and kaimahi also discussed the Solid Fuel Burner database, the review of the Canterbury Air Regional Plan in 2028, the viability of implementing air pollution forecasts, the relationship between meteorology and air pollution, and the need for more efficient, cost-effective ways to monitor air quality, particularly when MfE introduces PM_2.5 standards.

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