Councils developing a system to record information relating to resource consents may wish to consider their reporting requirements early on, including those required under sections 35 and 35A of the RMA, and the National Monitoring System. It may also be beneficial to consider what information could be collected and reported on internally and to inform plan-making decisions.
Information on resource consents is commonly recorded by councils electronically, although some information is also manually recorded in a physical record and/or register.
Physical records
A number of councils have created their own cover sheets for recording information about a particular application. These are usually copied and kept at the front of any file, or on the actual cover face of the file for easy reference.
Including a processing sheet at the front of a consent file is an effective way of recording key information and monitoring compliance with statutory time frames.
Note – the information recorded on a cover sheet should correspond to any electronic records.
Recommended matters for recording
Councils developing a system to record information relating to resource consents should consider the following matters:
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reporting requirements for the NMS
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requirements under sections 35 and 35A
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any necessary information that may assist in applying the discount regulation.
It is important to remember that any information recorded about a particular consent application must be clear and accurate, and relatively easy to extract. Information should also be recorded as it happens, not once the consent has been granted, declined or withdrawn.
