The Tasman District Council has announced that it is having delays in processing applications for Planning Consents.
The Council advised that due to a combination of high demand for services and staff shortages, the Council’s consents team have had to set some realistic timeframes in order to assist planning for their customers.
The Council states that “along with other teams across the country, our consenting services have been affected by a shortage of experienced planners. Over 1,000 consent applications have been lodged since the start of 2021, which has presented significant challenges to our expected timeframes.”
In the weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday period historically the Council sees an increase in applications and duty planner requests being made to the Council as many of their customers seek information and consents before they head into the Christmas break.
The Council said “we are already entering the busy pre-Christmas holiday time of year with an existing backlog of applications and duty planner queries. With the current staffing constraints, we will not be able to meet all the demand prior to the Christmas break.”
“For anyone who lodged a consent application or requested duty planning advice after 22 November 2021, it has been logged and assigned to a planner and will be responded to in the order they were received. However, it is unlikely that these will be processed until at least 17 January 2022. Our pre-application service will also not be available over this period.”
The Council stated that the situation is below the level of service they want to deliver and they know that the service is below what the Tasman community deserves but Council believes it is important to provide clarity and as much transparency as possible about their current timeframes so people can plan for and understand the potential delays.
The Council said “we are working hard to manage the matters within our control to reduce the impacts to our customers and we ask for your patience at this time.”
Pigeon Post News
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