The Southland District Council has issued a statement in response to growing "frustration" from the building community that building consents are not being processed fast enough during Alert Level 3. 

"There’s been an expectation that our building team would have been able to deal with your consent applications as fast as they came in," it reads. 

"We’ve done our best, but the reality is we’re up against it at the moment."

Before the Alert Level 4 lockdown, the SDC had 124 building inspections awaiting approval, but these all had to be put on hold once the lockdown came into effect. 

In the first week of Alert Level 3, the SDC received a further 122 inspection bookings along with 122 corresponding 'COVID-19 building site safety plans' to assess.

Following new government COVID-19 health and safety regulations under Alert Level 3, all inspection requests must now also be submitted with a building site safety plan to ensure correct health and safety protocols are being adhered to; but the SDC says this creates "a lot of extra admin to absorb" into its already small team.

Since Level 3 began a fortnight ago, SDC staff have been able to complete 62 inspections, but this still leaves 205 outstanding inspections to be completed. 

To make matters worse, the SDC is operating a reduced workforce of building inspectors and has been able to complete an average of four inspections per day, with three inspectors on the road. 

The SDC says it usually has five to six inspectors operating daily but some had been considered "vulnerable" persons during the pandemic and therefore could be exposed to the risk of contracting COVID-19. That, coupled with some being stuck at home due to the inter-regional travel restrictions, meant the SDC is down to just a four-person team. And this is not enough. 

"On our first day of inspections, we had only one person on the road as we trialled new procedures and adjusted our approach for safety."

"Our existing system wasn’t set up for the additional administration of dealing with health and safety site plans," it says. 

However, before lockdown, there were already concerns from the building community that consents were taking too long to process. 

One Southland builder, who wished not to be named, said the process of having building consents approved through the SDC had "been slow for the last 2-3 years," but he said he hadn't noticed the wait times get necessarily better or worse during Level 3. 

Currently, the SDC has two vacant positions for building inspection officers and says it has been "advertising regularly on an ongoing basis" to fill these positions, but the positions have proved tricky to fill.

The SDC says its inspectors have been working "crazy hours" trying to keep up with demand but this was "not sustainable".

The SDC's new "GoGET” software, also went live this week, which allows building inspectors to process consent applications online.

This would normally make life a lot easier and considerably speed up the process, however, it will take a while for the team to become competent using the system when they are already under pressure to carry out building inspections, the council says. 

It's a frustrating time for local builders, especially when many are eager to see building work get underway to reboot the economy and help save jobs. 

However, the SDC insists it is not making excuses, and wants a positive result as much as anyone. 

"This is the hand we’ve been dealt right now and we’re trying to give you all the information we have so that we can each fully understand the situation we find ourselves in."

"We really want to help you get your building work consented and up and running, to help kickstart the local economy and get people’s lives back on track. We’re frustrated, too, that we aren’t able to go any faster," the letter reads. 

 The SDC also addresses certain queries from builders who the SDC said are trying to push their job up the queue.

"Queue-jumping doesn’t work at a fast food takeaway any more than it works for a building control authority. Please go through the correct channels and email us at [email protected]."

"We’re asking for patience and a little compassion as our team works very hard to get through a huge programme of work and give you the level of service you deserve," the letter says. 

The SDC asked builders to remain patient as staff get to work on the vast number of consents as the country looks at moving into Level 2 shortly.