Activity Group: Environmental Management Emerging Issues and Expected Changes The Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (RLAA) contains approximately 40 amendments and is the most comprehensive package of reforms to the Legislative Changes Resource Management Act since its inception 26 years ago. The intent of these The challenges for this Activity are centred on the need to adequately respond to changes is to deliver substantive improvements to the resource management legislative and other changes whilst meeting statutory timeframes for the system, to support more effective environmental management and drive capacity processing of consents and providing a fair, cost effective and consistent service for development and economic growth. In particular the amendments aim to to the community. As a large unitary authority, the Council is responsible for provide stronger national direction, a more responsive planning process, processing a constantly fluctuating work flow, including a number of applications streamlined resource consent processing and better alignment with other of a complicated nature, particularly those involving the allocation of water and legislation. coastal space. Council constantly reviews its processes and procedures to ensure adherence with current best practices. The RLAA directly amends five different Acts: the Resource Management Act 1991, Conservation Act 1986, Reserves Act 1977, Public Works Act 1981, and the The Resource Management Amendment Act 2013 introduced new provisions in Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2013. March 2015. The new provisions relate to the required content of resource Consequential changes have also been made to other Acts. consent applications under section 88 and Schedule 4 of the Act. The new provisions require significantly more information at lodgement stage for Some of the changes to the Resource Management Act took immediate effect, applications to be accepted under section 88. If the applicant does not provide this and others have transitional periods. The majority of changes to the resource information the application “must” be rejected. Since 3 March 2015 Council has consent process came into force on 18 October 2017. The Council has developed been required to reject 256 applications for resource consent due to new templates, processes and forms to meet the requirements associated with incompleteness. Prior to this legislative change Council rejected less than 1% of these changes. all applications received. In 2017 there has been a significant reduction in the number of applications that are being rejected which indicates the effectiveness of Quality Management System Council’s duty planner service. This has resulted in a better understanding by The Regulatory Department is continuing to experience increased demands from applicants of the new requirements. statutory functions. To ensure the section fulfils these functions, the department operates under a Quality Management System (QMS). Control and suitability of Council expanded the service to two full time duty planners in 2017 to cater for the the QMS is reliant on Regulatory Department managers and staff resourcing. significant increase in demand for the service, both in terms of the volume and the However, increasing resource demands limit the department’s ability to maintain complexity of the enquiries. This expansion has improved the level of service and continually improve the QMS. provided to customers. Funding for a dedicated Regulatory QMS position has been allocated to maintain The number of applications being processed by the team was consistently over the department’s QMS and mitigate risk of nonconformity with statutory functions 400 in 2017, compared to 340 in 2016 and 270 in 2015. The number of from 2019/20. applications spiked with notification of the Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan on 9 June 2016. The earthquake on 14 November 2016 has created a significant increase in applications in the land disturbance area. The number of road/bridge works and gravel extractions applications in association with the earthquake recovery has been considerable. 2018-2028 Long Term Plan Page 119