CHB mayor happy with progress on BCA and wastewater

PROGRESS: CHB mayor Alex Walker is happy with the direction the CHB District Council is taking in dealing with issues that plagued the last term's council. PHOTO/NICKI HARPER

Pic: Alex Walker
PROGRESS: CHB mayor Alex Walker is happy with the direction the CHB District Council is taking in dealing with issues that plagued the last term's council. PHOTO/NICKI HARPER

Four months into the job CHB mayor Alex Walker says she is enjoying all facets of the role, and is happy to report progress is being made on two contentious issues that arose in the previous council term - the local Building Consent Authority (BCA) and the Waipawa and Waipukurau wastewater treatment plants.

At the end of 2015, issues that local builders and tradespeople had been having with the CHB BCA boiled over, prompting an independent audit of the department and its processing of consents and inspections and the resignation of the building department team leader Jock Hyde in September last year.

Ms Walker said that from the start of the new term this was one of the council's priorities and an environmental and regulatory committee was created to illustrate that.

Since the election, she said this committee had been brought up to speed with the audit and that the steps taken as a result had helped improve the department's operation and the public's perception of it.

"Operationally there's new staff and a new team has formed and there's been a culture shift."

She said that from a personal perspective, while she had continued to field tense phone calls from builders and tradespeople voicing frustration at the end of last year, so far this year that was no longer the case.

"Instead I have had people, both tradespeople and property owners, approach me in the street to say how excited they are about the changes and how much easier it is to do business."

She added that the experience last year had meant people in the building industry had learned more about the process and that there was a greater appreciation of how the department worked.

As of the end of last year, the department was fulfilling its technical and legislative requirements and most of the recommendations that came from the audit had been completed or were nearly completed.

This boded well, given the explosion in building activity in the district, she said.

Meanwhile, the performance of floating wetland wastewater treatment systems in Waipukurau and Waipawa had been under the spotlight since they were installed in 2014.

They subsequently breached their resource consent conditions to the extent that the Hawke's Bay Regional Council last year announced it would prosecute the CHB District Council.

The hearings for this prosecution had been delayed until March 20 while the two councils exchanged information.

The newly elected council last year asked for an independent review of the system, something the staff had already been working on with NIWA, Ms Walker said.

"Since then we have seen drafts and and progress reports but we are yet to see the final report which won't be far away."

She said a lot of consultants and independent experts from across the country had had input into the ongoing efficacy of the plants.

"I'm feeling reasonably comfortable that we are on the right path but we will wait to see the final report.

"What I have seen and learned is that what we are doing here is comprehensive, and when you look at the recent media reports on how cities are dealing with wastewater I feel we are taking our responsibilities very seriously."

She said that with both these issues, and the other council business, there was a clear direction for the next three years to strive for better communication between regional and territorial authorities and the community.