Agenda of Policy and Regulatory Committee

POLICY AND REGULATORY COMMITTEE

Membership: 11

Meeting Cycle: Meets on a six weekly basis, as required or at the
requisition of the Chair

Quorum: Half of the members

Membership Hearings: Minimum of either 3 or 4 elected members (including the Chair) and alternates who have current certification under the Making Good Decisions Training, Assessment and Certification Programme for RMA Decision-Makers. The inclusion of an independent Commissioner as the rule rather than the exception

Reports to: Council

PURPOSE:

• To assist the Council monitor the development of strategies and policy that meet the current and future needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, and performance of regulatory functions in a way that is most cost-effective for households and businesses.

• To consider matters relating to the regulatory and quasi-judicial responsibilities of the Council under legislation. This includes, without limitation, matters under the RMA including the hearing of resource management applications.

Determine:

• Maintain an overview of work programmes carried out by the Council's Environmental Consents, Regulatory Services and strategy and policy development activities.

• Draft policies for public consultation, excluding those that will subsequently be required to follow a statutory process

• Approval and forwarding of submissions on matters related to the Committee’s area of responsibility

• Hearing and deciding notified resource consent applications.

• Hearing and deciding objections to conditions imposed on resource consents

• Hearing and deciding any matter notified under the Local Government Act 2002

• Hearing and deciding objections to the classification of dangerous dogs under section 31 of the Dog Control Act 1996 and abatement notices regarding barking dogs under section 55 of that Act

• Hearing and deciding objections to the classification of dogs as menacing dogs under sections 33A and 33C of the Dog Control Act 1996

• Hearing objections to specified traffic matters where the community board wishes to take an advocacy role

• Exercising the power of waiver under section 42A (4) of the Resource Management Act of the requirement to provide parties with copies of written reports prior to hearings

• Authorising the submission of appeals to the Environment Court on behalf of Council

• To appoint a subcommittee of suitably qualified persons to conduct hearings on behalf of the Committee. The Chair of the Policy and Regulatory Committee is also delegated this function.

• All statutory requirements under the Reserves Act 1977 that require the Department of Conservation to ratify.

Conduct of Hearings:

• To conduct hearings where these are required as part of a statutory process^{^[1]}.

• Hearing of submissions required on any matters falling under the Terms of Reference for this committee or delegating to a panel to undertake hearings (this delegation is also held by the Chair of the Policy and Regulatory Committee).

General:

Any other matters delegated to the Committee by Council in accordance with approved policies and bylaws.

NOTE:

The Ministry for the Environment advocates that Councils offer specialist RMA training in areas of law which are difficult to grasp or where mistakes are commonly made. This is to complement the Good Decision Making RMA training that they run (which is an overview and basic summary of decision making, rather than an in-depth training in specific areas of the RMA). Therefore in order to facilitate this, the RMA training run for councillors that wish to be hearings commissioners is mandatory.

Reasons for the importance of the training:

1 Hearings commissioners are kept abreast of developments in the legislation.

2 Legal and technical errors that have been made previously are avoided (many of which have resulted in Environment Court action which is costly, time consuming and often creates unrealistic expectations for the community).

3 The reputation of Council as good and fair decision makers or judges (rather than legislators) is upheld.

10 04 March 2019

Policy and Regulatory Committee

19 February 2019

File: (19/208)

Report no: PRC2019/1/46

Revised Training Budget for Community Boards

Purpose of Report

1. The purpose of this report is to recommend a revised Training Policy for Community Boards for the Committee’s consideration.

Recommendations

That the Committee recommends that Council:

(i) notes and receives the revised Training Policy for Community Boards attached as Appendix 1 to the report; and

(ii) considers adopting the revised Training Policy for Community Boards attached as Appendix 1 to the report.

Background

2. At its meeting dated 14 March 2017, Council resolved the following:

Resolved: (Cr Cousins/Cr Briggs) Minute No. C 17101(3)

“That Council approves the revised Training Policy for Community Boards and Community Committees (should Community Committees be established), attached as Appendix 1 to Report No PRC2017/1/51.”

3. The Training Policy for Community Boards and Community Committees, adopted by Council on 14 March 2017, states:

Community Boards’ Conference

‘The number of Community Board/Community Committee members being funded through the training budget to attend the biennial Community Boards’ conference is limited to one per Board/Committee.’

‘…. The maximum amount Council will pay towards the training needs and work programme of any one Hutt City Council Community Board/Community Committee member is $1,500 per financial year.’

4. Council resolved at its meeting held on 23 May 2017 to establish four Community Panels with different delegations, guidelines and criteria than that of the Community Boards. Council did not establish Community Committees for the 2016-2019 triennium.

Discussion - Request from the Chair of the Petone Community Board

5. On 11 January 2019 the Chief Executive received a letter from the Chair of the Petone Community Board asking him to consider allowing two Board members to attend the 2019 conference for the following reasons:

a) Better cover involvement in the workshops/sessions available concurrently.

b) Raise the networking and thinking and learnings by 1 X 1 = 3 because of the sharing, support and discussion opportunities two people provide each other compared to one person attending by themselves.

c) Much better enable follow-up action as well as feedback after such a conference.

6. The Chair of the Petone Community Board highlighted particular sessions that were of interest to the Board:

· Encouraging Youth and Talent.

· Engaging with the Maori community.

· Active aging.

· The address from the Minister for Local Government.

· Thinking about Education to Employment.

· LGNZ Update from the Chair.

· LGNZ Localism project update from CEO.

· Entering in one or both of the Engaging Communities and Leadership Best Practice Award.

7. As the Chief Executive was unable to approve the request as it conflicted with a Council decision, the request was raised at the recent Councillors Planning Session (‘the session’).

8. At the session, Councillors asked officers to review the section of the Training Policy for Community Boards that limited the number of Community Board members attending the Community Boards’ Conference (‘the conference’) and report back to the Policy and Regulatory Committee for its consideration.

9. Officers have reviewed the section following the discussion at the session and propose revising it to allow for more than one Community Board to attend if still within overall training budget, and any expenditure beyond budget be personally funded (see Appendix 1 attached to the report for the marked up amendment). This proposed amendment does not have additional financial implications.

10. Officers also took the opportunity to revise the policy (see Appendix 1 attached to the report for the marked up amendments) to include:

(a) the latest information on training opportunities;

(b) reference to the Code of Conduct for Elected Members to help and offer guidance to Board members when participating in relevant training seminars/conferences; and

Options

11. Option 1

Status Quo – continue with the current Training Policy for Community Boards. This option does not have additional financial implications.

12. Option 2

Recommend to Council to adopt the revised Training Policy for Community Boards. This option does not have additional financial implications.

Consultation

13. The Petone, Eastbourne and Wainuiomata Community Boards, at their respective meetings, approved one member from each Board to attend the conference. The Boards also agreed to send another member from each Board subject to the revised Training Policy being approved by Council.

14. The outcome of Council’s decision will be known on 26 March 2019 and will be circulated to the Chairs of the Boards.

Legal Considerations

15. There are no legal considerations.

Financial Considerations

16. The overall training budget for the Boards of $9,000 is available to meet the training needs of Community Board members each financial year.

17. Payment for induction and long-term training costs will be made from the Council’s budget for training.

Other Considerations

18. In making this recommendation, officers have given careful consideration to the purpose of local government in section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002. Officers believe that this recommendation falls within the purpose of local government in that it ensures Community Board members have access to training to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the Boards in representing the interests of their specific community and supporting Council in its governance role by facilitating local input into Council’s decision-making process.

Appendices

No.	Title	Page
1 ⇩	Revised Training Policy for Community Boards2019	11

Author: Kathryn Stannard

Divisional Manager, Democratic Services

Approved By: Tony Stallinger

Chief Executive

Attachment 1

Revised Training Policy for Community Boards2019

training policy for community boards

1. Purpose

The purpose of ensuring that Community Board members have access to training is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Boards in representing the interests of their specific community and supporting Council in its governance role by facilitating local input into Council’s decision-making processes.

The Training Policy (the policy) for Community Boards should be read in conjunction with the Code of Conduct for Elected Members.

2. PRINCIPLES

The following principles underpin Hutt City Council’s approach to the training and development of Community Board members.

· Training begins with the induction of Community Board members. Newly elected members will come from a variety of backgrounds and have differing degrees of training needs when they take up their role.

· Community Board members will have ongoing training and professional development needs which should be met to ensure they are able to fulfil their roles.

· Because having inadequately trained Community Board members is potentially more costly than providing training, Hutt City Council will invest in training.

· Any training undertaken must relate to the roles and responsibilities of each individual Community Board member.

· Funding will be available for training which meet the criteria contained in this policy. Funding will not be available for any training outside of those criteria.

3. Financial support

Community Board members are eligible for financial support for training and development. Such training and development may include on-demand webinars, development videos, formal training courses, attendance at seminars or attendance at relevant conferences in addition to training or information provided during induction.

A maximum cap of $3,000 per financial year for each Community Board will be applied. The maximum amount Council will pay towards the training needs and work programme of any one Community Board member is $1,500 per financial year.

There will be an overall training budget of $9,000 available to meet the training needs and work programme requirements of Community Boards each financial year.

Financial support may include the cost of attending the training courses, seminars, forums or conferences and other events and the related costs of travel and accommodation, if the training is not held in Wellington.

LGNZ courses at the beginning of each triennium are provided to members at no cost to their budget - this is funded through the induction training budget for elected members.

Community Boards’ Conference

The Community Boards’ Conference is held every two years. More than one Community Board member can attend if still within the overall training budget and any expenditure beyond budget be personally funded. Approval requires a formal decision as part of their Community Board meeting.

~~The number of Community Board members being funded through the training budget to attend the biennial Community Boards’ conference is limited to one per Board.~~

4. Procedure for applying for financial support

Consideration and Approval

Any request for funding must first be made to the relevant Board for consideration and approval. When making the decision to either approve or decline the request for professional development Boards must have regard to:

· The purpose and principles of the Training Policy

· the skills make up of Board members

· the skills required; and

· the amount of assistance requested with reference to the amount of training budget available.

The Board may approve any request for funding up to $750. They must advise the ~~Divisional Manager Secretariat Services~~ Divisional Manager Democratic Services directly of any requests and approvals. They must also make a formal decision as part of their Community Board meeting. The request must be placed on the relevant Board agenda for discussion.

Requests to attend formal training courses, seminars, forums or conferences and other events with a value over $750 (other than the Community Boards’ Conference) are to be made by the Chair or Deputy Chair of the Board in writing to the Divisional Manager Democratic Services ~~General Counsel~~ for a decision with a recommendation regarding whether or not the request should be approved based on the training criteria.

Any member attending a training course, conference, seminar or similar event will be required to provide a written report and evaluation to:

· The relevant Board in a form agreed in advance and

· The Divisional Manager ~~Secretariat~~ Democratic Services.

5. criteria and basis for approval

The criteria and basis for any approval for financial support to be given for training and development under this policy are as follows:

· The training course is either specified in Schedule A of this policy OR relates directly to the specific Community Board member’s duties and responsibilities that are not covered in Schedule A; and

· Related to knowledge and successes including acceptance of recognition and prizes where this is relevant to the Community Board activity.

6. Procedure for applying for financial support for longer term training courses

All requests for financial support to attend longer-term training courses are to be made in writing to the General Manager Corporate Services ~~General Counsel~~ for a decision. Additional guiding principles when making a decision in this situation are:

· what is the overall duration of the course; and

· the point of time in the triennium when the training is requested.

Financial support, if approved, is capped at 50% of total costs (and within the maximum stated above).

SCHEDULE a

APPROVED TRAINING

Approval may be given by the relevant Board for attendance at any of the following courses:

Induction

· This includes Hutt City Council’s normal induction process for Elected Members.

· Chair and Deputy Chair training

LGNZ Courses – Local Government Equip

A series of two day workshops to bring new members up to speed and refresh longer serving members are held shortly after local government elections. Designed for all members, whether from district, city and regional Councils or Community Boards, the programme draws on a broad range of sector expertise and up-to-date information. Topics covered include:

· understanding the local government system

· role of members

· introduction to the Local Government Act

· decision-making

· long-term planning

· consultation

· regulation and the Resource Management Act

· funding

· putting democracy into practice - ethics, conflicts of interest and freedom of information.

This training provides knowledge about legislation and council processes to ‘get started'.

Members may also attend other LGNZ Professional Development Courses that:

· are relevant to the role they are playing as a Board member eg Chair, Deputy Chair, events, community development

· add to their level of experience and expertise as a Community Boards member and

· grow the engagement/consultation skills of members

· grow the technical/financial skill sets of members relevant to the role they play on the Board

http://www.lgnz.co.nz/equip/training/

18 04 March 2019

Policy and Regulatory Committee

07 February 2019

File: (19/152)

Report no: PRC2019/1/11

Update on Strategic Waste Reviews and the Review of the Refuse Collection and Disposal Bylaw 2008

Purpose of Report

1. This paper provides a

a. brief overview on progress on three strategic projects to review our waste management system,

b. brief overview of the findings of a recent report on construction and demolition waste in the Wellington region, and

c. an update on the review of Council’s Refuse Collection and Disposal Bylaw 2008, including background information on waste management and minimisation issues that have been identified so far for Lower Hutt

2. This is in order to provide you with background information on material that will be covered during a Council workshop on 14 March 2019.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Committee:

(i) notes the progress on three strategic projects to review our waste management system;

(ii) notes Tonkin & Taylor Ltd’s report regarding construction and demolition waste, and the options available to councils in the Wellington region to address them;

(iii) notes the information on waste management and minimisation issues that have been identified so far for Lower Hutt, with an opportunity to discuss these in more detail at a workshop on 14 March 2019;

(iv) notes that Council officers are continuing to work with the other councils in the Wellington region to support the Waste Management and Minimisation Plan’s (WMMP) action to “investigate and if feasible, develop … a regional bylaw or a suite of regionally consistent bylaws;” and

(v) notes that draft bylaw provisions could be made available for Council consideration by the middle of 2019.

Background

3. Officers have been undertaking reviews and business case work related to various waste management and minimisation matters. An initial report on these matters was provided to the Policy and Regulatory Committee on 24 September 2018 (PRC2018/4/250).

Strategic waste reviews

4. In September 2018, officers commenced a review of three waste management areas (kerbside collection, resource recovery and residential hazardous waste), with a view to develop business cases to inform future actions.

5. Officers engaged consulting firm Morrison Low, with key expertise in waste management and experience in Treasury’s Better Business Case approach, to assist in this work.

6. In late 2018, work was undertaken to understand the key issues and problems in the three waste management areas, and to derive objectives (or outcomes) to be achieved, in order to compare any identified options against these (see Appendix 1). These “Investment Logic Maps” represent the thinking about problems with the current services and what our objectives are when looking at the future options.

7. During January 2019, work was undertaken to develop a comprehensive long list of options, in order to capture all possible means by which the objectives could be achieved. By way of example, in the kerbside collection area, a range of options were identified to collect refuse and kerbside recyclables (including using bins instead of crates for recyclables, in order to reduce wind-blown recycling becoming litter).

8. Work was also carried out to score all options against the objectives, and to derive an initial shortlist of options, for which a more detailed economic assessment is currently being carried out. Once complete (estimated for early March 2019), they will form the draft business cases for each waste management area, and officers expect to be able to share the draft business cases with Councillors for discussion and relevant decisions on the next steps.

Construction and demolition waste

9. The WMMP 2017-2023 signals that councils intend to work collaboratively to undertake research and actions to advance solutions to waste management issues.

10. Specifically, under the plan’s action R.IN.1 (investigate and if feasible develop a region-wide resource recovery network, including facilities for construction and demolition waste), councils cooperated and jointly commissioned a report from Tonkin & Taylor Ltd to analyse the waste minimisation issues and challenges associated with construction and demolition (C&D) waste, and to identify the range of options available to councils in response to these issues.

11. At the WMMP Joint Committee meeting on Monday 19 November 2018, the Joint Committee was presented with this C&D report, and resolved to recommend that a copy of the report be considered by all councils. In response to this recommendation, please find this report attached in Appendix 2.

12. At this stage, the report is an item for your information and consideration only.

13. By way of summary, the construction and demolition industry is generating substantial quantities of waste and much of this is potentially recoverable. However, while a range of opportunities exist to reduce, reuse and recycle this waste, to date such waste management and minimisation mechanisms remain unutilised and underdeveloped in the Wellington region.

14. The key issues include, but are not limited to constrained capacity to process and recover C&D waste, the availability of low cost disposal for C&D waste close to where many major projects are occurring, and a lack of incentives that would encourage or promote C&D waste minimisation.

15. The report suggests that councils have the greatest potential to reduce the amount of C&D waste sent to landfill through instigating a combination of policy-based and operational investment measures. These measures include:

a. Regulatory intervention: Council could establish bylaw provisions and/or consenting conditions to require waste management and minimisation plans in relation to certain C&D activities in Lower Hutt.

b. Procurement policy: Council could establish minimum and/or best practice waste management and minimisation standards in relation to its own projects (e.g. requiring the minimisation of waste during the construction of new community hubs).

c. Investment: Council could establish C&D waste processing capacity by investing in processing and making processing areas available.

16. If Councils decide to work regionally to progress these options, then further analysis is recommended.

Refuse Collection and Disposal Bylaw

17. Council has in place a Refuse Collection and Disposal Bylaw 2008. The bylaw triggered the need for a review in March 2018.

18. In a report to the Policy and Regulatory Committee on 24 September 2018 (PRC2018/4/250), officers noted that a project to review the bylaw had commenced, in line with the WMMP action to “investigate and if feasible, develop […} a regional bylaw or a suite of regionally consistent bylaws.”

19. As part of the review, a number of waste management and minimisation issues have been identified in a draft waste bylaw background information and issues report, see Appendix 3.

20. By way of summary, the report identifies and considers the following waste management and minimisation issues:

a. The potential for inefficient and ineffective waste management operations (e.g. managing the use and placement of kerbside containers for collection);

b. Inappropriate and unsafe management of the collection, transport and disposal of dangerous, hazardous and/or infectious waste;

c. Waste storage and collection activities that have the potential to create public nuisance issues and adverse impacts on amenity (e.g. minimising the mass deposit or piling of rubbish and recycling on the kerbside);

d. Inappropriate waste management storage and servicing areas in multi-unit dwellings;

e. The quantity of waste sent to landfills;

f. Lack of construction and demolition waste management and minimisation;

g. Littering, waste and public nuisance caused by the delivery of unaddressed mail (commonly referred to as junk mail);

h. Limited regional waste data;

i. Lack of event waste management and minimisation on Council owned, administered or managed land.

21. The draft waste bylaw background report suggests that a waste management bylaw is considered necessary for the achievement of effective and efficient waste management, for the protection of human health and safety, and for the promotion of waste minimisation. Without a bylaw, the Council will have a reduced ability to influence waste stream content, and will be unable to safeguard waste and recycling service standards for residents.

22. A workshop has been scheduled for 14 March 2019, in order to discuss these issues in more detail for problem definition and options analysis.

23. Similar workshops are scheduled, or have already taken place, in other councils in the Wellington region. They are useful for revealing the potential for cross-council bylaw consistency, and enable drafting of the most appropriate form of bylaw for Council consideration.

24. Officers expect that draft bylaw provisions could be made available for Council consideration by the middle of 2019. The legal bylaw process and associated consultation process is scheduled to take place between the third quarter of 2019 and early 2020.

Consultation

25. With regard to the three strategic reviews, no formal consultation with residents or businesses has yet been carried out, although once shortlisted options with benefits and costs have been developed, a consultation process could be carried out.

26. With regard to the Refuse Collection and Disposal Bylaw, public consultation will be part of the legal bylaw process between the third quarter of 2019 and early 2020. The exact timing of consultation is yet to be confirmed.

Legal, financial or other considerations

27. At this point in time there are no legal, financial or other considerations.

Appendices

No.	Title	Page
1 ⇩	Investment Logic Maps for three waste management areas	19
2 ⇩	Regional Construction and Demolition Waste Issues and Options Report	22
3 ⇩	HCC Waste Bylaw Review - Draft Background Information and Issues Report - 22 Feb 2019	88

Author: Jörn Scherzer

Sustainability and Resilience Manager

Approved By: Kim Kelly

General Manager, City Transformation

Attachment 2

Regional Construction and Demolition Waste Issues and Options Report

122 04 March 2019

Policy and Regulatory Committee

10 January 2019

File: (19/63)

Report no: PRC2019/1/12

General Manager's Report

Purpose of Report

1. The Policy and Regulatory Committee requested a General Manager’s report containing information on major consents, hearings, appeals to the Environment Court and enforcement matters.

Recommendation

That the Committee notes the contents of this report.

Background

2. This report covers the activities of three divisions in the City Transformation Group. It firstly covers Environmental Consents, secondly Regulatory Services and thirdly Sustainability and Resilience.

3. Environmental Consent data is attached as Appendix 1 to the report, and Regulatory Services data is attached as Appendix 2 to the report. The Sustainability and Resilience officers update the Committee with progress on the Whaitua process.

4. The Environmental Consents division processes consent applications under the Resource Management Act, the Food Act, the Sale & Supply of Alcohol Act and the Building Act (resource and building consents, liquor and food licences and District Licensing reports), as well as LIMs and property enquiries under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

5. Environmental Health services are provided for Upper Hutt City Council as well as Lower Hutt. The Environmental Consents team offers an Eco Design Advisor service across the city.

6. Regulatory Services deals with trade waste applications, bylaws, animal services, parking and emergency management.

Discussion – Environmental Consents

7. The numbers of applications across the board are higher compared to the same time last year. In particular, resource consents numbers are significantly higher when compared to the same period in 2018. This is largely as a result of the close of the Development Remissions programme.

8. Parvati Rotherham has begun as the Team Leader, Resource Consents (taking over from Tim Johnstone).

Building Team

9. The total value of work for building consents issued for the 2018 calendar year is $282m from a total of 1464 building consents, compared to 2017 when we received $202m from 1231 building consents. This equates to a 39% increase in the value of work and a 19% increase in the number of consents for the same period last calendar year.

10. Recent building consent applications received of note include:

· St Peters and Paul school – Internal alterations of classroom block – value of building work: $170,000

· Taita Drive Avalon - 15 dwelling subdivision – value of building work: $450,000

· Demolition: Wellington Electricity building – A building consent application has been received to demolish the prominent six storey building located at 73 The Esplanade. The demolition methodology is being reviewed by our consultant engineer to ensure the demolition meets structural safety standards. The traffic management plan is being processed by our transport team as there will be traffic disruptions to eastbound traffic. A resource consent has also been lodged as the work affects an urupa site near the northern boundary.

· New five storey multi-residential building – The proposed $9m building will be located at the corner of Oxford Terrace and Mitchell Street (115 Oxford Terrace) and will replace the former Housing New Zealand Star flats that were demolished last year. The architecturally designed building will contain 28 residential units over 3 connected wings with onsite car parking at the rear of the site.
· High Street Hotel: Stage 3 and 4 – Building consents have now been lodged for the super structure. Stage 3 covers the steel and concrete superstructure, Stage 4 includes enclosing the external structure, internal fit-out and partitions. The combined value of work for both stages is $7.7m.

· Hutt Valley Health Hub – Building consent has been lodged for stage 3 of the health hub to be located at 135 Witako Street, Epuni. The building complex is made up of 3 blocks that have a total floor area of 3400 square metres. The health hub will include a gym, pharmacy, physio, dental clinic, childcare facility and a café. The value of work for this stage alone is $8.7m.

· 249 Rata Street, Naenae – A building consent is currently being processed to construct 21 new dwellings at the site previously occupied by Wesleyhaven rest home in Naenae. The building designs have been pre-approved by MBIE under the multi-proof approval scheme and will be processed in half the statutory timeframe, 10 working days.

· Days Bay wharf refurbishment – A discretionary exemption has been approved for the repair and replacement of piles, capping beams, stringers and replacement of concrete decking, the value of the refurbishment is estimated at $3m.

· St Bernard’s College – Building consent has been lodged for a new $2M Science block containing 5 lab spaces, associated teacher spaces and store areas.

· Naenae Intermediate – The administration block will be revamped and will include new internal walls, re-pitching and recladding roof and recladding the exterior, $300,000 spend.

· Apartments above Daily Bread Bakery, High Street – A building consent application has been received for six apartments above the Daily Bread Bakery. The development will make use of the existing unoccupied space on the 2nd level at 461 High Street, value of work $850,000.

Earthquake prone buildings

11. Our seismic assessment officers have been engaging with owners of earthquake prone buildings with notices that expired at the end of last year. There are 10 buildings with expired earthquake prone building notices that have not been issued with extensions. These are located in the following areas:

Three in Hutt Central

Two in Petone

Two in Naenae

Two in Alicetown

One in Wainuiomata.

12. Officers are currently looking at the enforcement options available to us for these 10 building owners. Prosecution is a likely option for some of these building owners, given our success against a building owner on Jackson Street.

13. We are making some changes to our emergency response plan in anticipation of the pending changes to the Building Act (in relation to managing buildings in the event of an emergency). The amendment comes on the back of the learnings from the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes and will clarify specific roles within Councils. It also allows us to develop a framework to better deal with the response and recovery stages of an emergency. We are running specific training sessions for our staff and engaging with owners of buildings that are considered to be at risk during and after an event.

Eco Design Advisory Service (EDA)

14. We are working with our Communications and Marketing Team to put together a marketing plan for 2019. We want some targeted marketing to promote our EDA service in the warmer months before we head in to winter. We hope that this will help homeowners be better informed and prepared for winter, it’s also a good time to action some of the recommendations while the weather allows. We anticipate there being some flow-on benefits for us as it will help spread the workload more evenly throughout the year.

15. We are continuing to assist Upper Hutt City Council by undertaking any EDA visits as requested with their region.

16. Free Homestar assessments are available until early May through the New Zealand Green Building Council. The Eco Design Advisor is promoting this in Lower Hutt.

17. We are proposing to have HEAT (Home Energy Assessment Toolkit) kits available for loan at the libraries. This will have an energy monitor, a thermometer, stopwatch, shower bag and a manual with instructions on how to self-audit energy use in the home.

18. The Eco Design Advisor service will have a presence at the Te Wa Heke festival (previously the Hutt STEMM Festival) – the theme will be thermography –we are planning to use our thermal camera to show where the heat from heaters actually goes.

Resource Consents Team

19. At the end of last year we had a large influx of resource consents for multi-unit consents due to the expiration of the Development Charges and Remissions Policy on the 31st of December 2018.

20. In December alone, we received 98 applications (compared to 37 applications in December 2017).

21. In anticipation of this influx and to avoid lengthy delays for customers, the team brought on a number of additional planning consultants to help with resource consent processing. Also a third urban design consultant was employed to help with the assessments against the design guidelines.

22. Despite this, in case of delays, all applicants have been notified of the situation.

23. Notable resource consents lodged:

· 121 The Esplanade, Petone: Multi-story hotel

· 39 Percy Cameron, Avalon: Repurposing Avalon tower for apartments and multi-units in current carparking area adjacent

· 1 Elizabeth Street, Petone: Mixed-use development

Recently notified consents

· 4-6 Bolton Street, Petone: A resource consent application for the construction and associated subdivision of three dwellings with integrated minor dwelling units has been notified on a limited basis to two neighbours. A hearing was held on 1^st February 2019 and the decision should be back by the end of the month.

Recently granted resource consents

· Jimmy Barnes Concert - Hutt Recreation Centre

· 64 Waipounamu Drive, Kelson - New show home for the Kelson Heights Development

· 37a Bloomfield Terrace - Earthworks consents for the redevelopment of Queensgate

· 1041A High Street, Avalon - 32 Multi-unit development

· 86 Moohan Street, Wainuiomata - Stage one of the Port Nicholson Trust development of 39 houses.

Land Information Memoranda (LIMs) Team

24. LIM applications slowed towards the end of last year, but have picked up fast in February.

25. We are planning on implementing a new system for customers to apply for, and for officers to process, LIMs to make it easier for all. We are planning to go live with this in June.

Environmental Health Team

Recruitment

26. There remains one vacant position, that of the Environmental Health Officer/Environmental Technical Officer (18 month contract). Two potentially suitable candidates withdrew after their interviews late last year, and it is believed that they may have been offered permanent positions by their current employer. Recruiting will continue until the position is filled, or no longer required, should the backlog of food verifications be cleared. Two short term contractors are currently engaged to assist, but are not always available given other commitments outside of Council.

Alcohol

27. Blackbull Liquor, Rutherford Street – (new off licence – bottlestore) – the licence was initially granted by the Lower Hutt District Licensing Committee (DLC). An objector appealed to the Alcohol Regulatory Licensing Authority (ARLA) who over-ruled the DLC decision and declined the application. The applicant then appealed to the High Court, and a hearing was held on the 15^th October 2018. The High Court declined the appeal, meaning that no licence was granted.

28. The Licensing Inspectors have all been working very hard and it is pleasing to report that all alcohol application reporting is now up to date.

Bylaws

29. Pre-consultation for the proposed alcohol fee setting bylaw is now completed. The Alcohol Hearings Subcommittee heard submissions on 8 February 2019. A total of seven submissions were received:

· One request for further information

· One ‘blank’ submission form

· 5 opposing the proposal

· 2 submitters wishing to be heard

· 5 submitters who did not wish to be heard.

30. Work is underway (pre-consultation) with Council’s Policy Team on a proposed Appearance Bylaw. A survey by Regional Public Health (RPH) has shown that many operators do not have processes or procedures in place to adequately clean, disinfect and sterilise equipment that does, or has the potential to cut or pierce the skin. While historically, there have only been a small number of complaints/issues reported to Council/RPH, at least two of these have resulted in serious infections of the skin, one of which resulted in death.

31. The areas covered by this bylaw would be body piercing, tattooing, nail bars, acupuncture, and various other cosmetic appearance/treatment practices.

Food

32. An assessor from the Ministry of Primary Industries visited Council on the 25^th and 26^th October to carry out a review of Council’s regulatory services in relation to food safety verification, compliance and registration. The overall feedback was good, although no formal report has been provided to Council.

33. The Environmental Health Team had their accreditation audit in February with JAS-ANZ (very similar to the accreditation we go through with the building function).

34. This is for approval as a registered agency to continue to conduct the verifications of food premises.

35. The auditor has said: “your system is very simple and easy to understand” and that we have “done extremely well”. There were a few areas to improve upon, which officers are already working on.

36. A comment was made by the auditor that there is a large backlog of food verifications to get through (and this was not unusual for Councils). This results from being under-resourced for some time. Resourcing is being prioritised in order to get on top of this backlog as soon as possible.

37. Additionally, all officers who conduct food verifications on-site were individually tested, and all have passed with flying colours.

38. There are currently nine food premises operating without registration. (This has been reduced from 20, two months ago). A further three operators have outstanding fees owing. Reminder and warning letters have been sent, however operators will also be visited in person to request the outstanding application and/or fee.

39. Food Safety Officers issued directions to three operators in Wainuiomata, Hutt Central and Avalon to cease trading until those premises were cleaned to a satisfactory standard.

Noise

40. The Jimmy Barnes Concert at the Hutt Recreation Ground on 5 February 2019 generated seven complaints. These consisted of five from Moera, one from Waterloo and one from Point Howard. Noise monitoring was undertaken by the concert sound engineers to assist with meeting the relevant noise limit that was imposed by resource consent. A previous Jimmy Barnes concert (some years ago) was monitored by Council Officers and found to be compliant with the District Plan noise rules. Any future concert can also be monitored in the same way.

41. An info-graphic is attached as Appendix 3 showing various activities and their corresponding noise levels.

Enforcement matters from Regulatory Services

Animal Services

42. Animal Services have just concluded the blue tooth dog tag trial. A customer survey was sent out on 5 February and we await the results of that before making a decision to use the product or not. We have used the process of Design Thinking to evaluate what the customers want and if this product meets the customers’ expectations. We will inform you of the results in the next GMs report.

43. The area set aside for the dog park in Wainuiomata will be available to start work on by the end of April. Council has engaged a landscape architect to assist us with the design of the park as we want it to be an adventure park. We will keep you posted as we move along with this project which is going to be a fantastic asset for our city.

44. Due to a recent resignation we have employed Mike Devine as a new Animal Control Officer. Mike’s time will be shared between the Wellington and Hutt teams and his usual week is Tuesday to Saturday to cover some of our weekend work.

Parking Services

45. How our team performs in comparison to Wellington City Council Parking Services (Period reported: November 2017 to October 2018: DomPost 22 December 2018)

Authority	Number tickets issued	Value	Average value of ticket	Number of wardens
Wellington CC	206,686	8,290,594	$40	60
Hutt CC	36,692	3,257,839	$88.70	9

Emergency Management

46. Currently Greater Wellington has five university students conducting a survey of 200 residents that live along the edges of the Waiwhetu Stream. The study is to check the current perceptions of the residents with regard to flooding, and their preparedness if flooding occurs, ways to be contacted if flooding is imminent, and any concerns they may have due to sea level rise.

47. In November the EOC practiced a full activation with recon and rescue teams being deployed. Also we had a simulated community hub relaying information. We ran two full shifts with 28 and 34 staff assisting in the EOC, plus six and eight in each recon shift and four in each shift from NZRT18. The learnings from this have gone into our procedures and will be integrated into the Local Earthquake Response Plan which is being written and due for release in June.

48. The Emergency Management team are organising the introduction of drone technology into six different areas of Council. The first steps are getting Civil Aviation Agency authorised training, both theory and practical. The areas identified within Council where we are proposing to use the drones are inspection work i.e. bridge, building, traffic markings, along with GIS photography, event promotions and emergency management.

49. We have written both a policy and a management procedures manual. Staff using the drones for work purposes need to be qualified. We are looking at having our first staff qualified in March.

Trade Waste

50. The trial of the litter traps on Jackson Street has concluded after eight weeks of installation. The raw data was:

§ Numerically the most common litter type was cigarette butts,
1204 were captured with greatly increased concentrations outside a pub

§ Numerically plastic items totaled 471 pieces

§ Numerically paper items totaled 400

§ Numerically metal items (eg cans) totaled 43

§ A small amount of glass

51. There was a surprising volume of leaf litter for Jackson Street with its relative absence of trees.

52. There are nearly 10000 sumps in Hutt City and whilst a straight forward extrapolation is not reasonable it is likely that all the commercial/retail areas would all provide similar data with lesser numbers of cigarette butts likely in residential areas but likely similar plastic and paper data.

Whaitua process

53. Whaitua committees are tasked with developing programmes to improve the quality of our streams, rivers and harbour.

54. The Whaitua te Whanganui-a-Tara Committee, focused on the Hutt Valley and Wellington, has now been established, and is expected to complete its work by the end of 2020.

55. The Whaitua te Whanganui-a-Tara Committee is made up of community members and iwi, local authorities and Greater Wellington Regional Council representatives (see http://www.gw.govt.nz/whaitua-te-whanganui-a-tara/ for further detail on its composition). Councillor Lewis is the Hutt City Council representative on the Committee.

56. The first Committee meeting took place on Matiu/Somes Island on 8 February 2019. This was an opportunity for committee members and Council officers supporting the process to meet each other, and to go through the process ahead. Further meetings are scheduled on a monthly basis.

57. With regard to internal support, David Burt (Senior Advisor Sustainability and Resilience) will provide support to Councillor Lewis and Hutt City Council around this process, and is working alongside officers from the other councils to support the Committee in carrying out its work. He will be coordinating all internal officer advice, analysis and feedback.

Consultation

58. Consultation was undertaken with affected parties on notified resource consents.

Legal Considerations

59. The group administers the RMA, the Building Act, LGOIMA, the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, Food Act, associated bylaws and other legislation. No other legal considerations apply in terms of the content of this paper.

Financial Considerations

60. There are no financial considerations.

Other Considerations

61. In making this recommendation, officers have given careful consideration to the purpose of local government in section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002. Officers believe that this recommendation falls within the purpose of local government in that it meets the current needs of the community by ensuring that development is dealt with in a controlled and legitimate manner.

Appendices

No.	Title	Page
1 ⇩	Infographic - Environmental Consents graphs at the end of January 2019	123
2 ⇩	Enforcement actions from Regulatory Services as at 31 January 2019	147
3 ⇩	Representative Sound Pressure Levels in Decibels	149

Author: Helen Oram

Divisional Manager Environmental Consents

Author: Geoff Stuart

Divisional Manager, Regulatory Services and Emergency Management

Author: Bruce Hodgins

Strategic Advisor, City and Community Services

Author: Derek Kerite

Building and Quality Assurance Manager

Author: Craig Ewart

Building Team Leader

Author: David Burt

Senior Advisor Sustainability and Resilience

Author: Jörn Scherzer

Sustainability and Resilience Manager

Author: Dean Bentley

Team Leader Environmental Health

Approved By: Kim Kelly

General Manager, City Transformation

Attachment 1

2019 Policy and Regulatory Work Programme

2019 POLICY & REGULATORY COMMITTEE WORK PROGRAMME

Description	Author	Cycle 1, 2019	Cycle 2, 2019	Cycle 3, 2019	Cycle 4, 2019	Pending
Community Board Training Policy	K Stannard	ü
General Manager’s Report	K Kelly	ü	ü	ü	ü
Review of the Refuse Collection and Disposal Bylaw	J Scherzer	ü
Homelessness Strategy	J Pritchard/ O Miller	ü (2)
Parking Policy Review	W Moore / J Pritchard		ü
Update on carbon performance measures/Climate and Resilience Plan/Coastal Adaptation Resilience Programme(may be moved to Cycle3)	J Scherzer		ü
Wainuiomata Reserves	M Sherwood		ü
Activity Report: - City Growth & Sustainability – Consents and Regulatory Services	H Oram / G Stuart		ü
Alcohol Fees Bylaw	G Sewell		ü
Feasibility of including old landfills in target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions	J Scherzer				ü
Annual update on progress towards carbon targets	J Scherzer				ü
Control of Animals Bylaw - bees	G Sewell					ü
Appearances Bylaw	G Sewell					ü
Discount Registration - Therapy Dogs	L Dalton					ü
Risk and Resilience Costs Update	W Moore					ü
Control of Animals Bylaw – Council’s accountability for cats	G Sewell					ü
Naenae Library Site	B Hodgins					ü

2 When acting in this capacity the committee has a quasi-judicial role.

Deputy Mayor D Bassett	Cr L Bridson
Cr C Barry	Cr J Briggs
Cr T Lewis	Cr M Lulich
Cr C Milne	Cr L Sutton
Mayor W R Wallace (ex-officio)

PARKING SERVICES	October	November	December	January
Infringements	3093	2605	2611	2494
Stationary offences (WOFs, tyres)	1122	1009	930	1061

ANIMAL SERVICES	October	November	December	January
Dogs impounded	64	54	45	45
Infringements issued	5	11	-	13
Prosecutions	-	-	-	-

ü