Providing authorisations

Resource consents, permits and other authorisations are key mechanisms for delivering environmental protection. They:

• Contribute to environmental, economic, social and cultural outcomes for Waitaha Canterbury by ensuring that rules and regulations designed to protect the environment and cultural values are translated into practice while allowing economic activity to continue
• Act as a contract between the holder, the community and Environment Canterbury as the consenting authority
• Are a resource user’s licence to operate and set out the conditions they must adhere to.

This service includes Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) consenting, gravel permits, and building consents for large dams (a dam that has a height of four or more metres and holds 20,000 or more cubic metres of water (or other liquid)).

The measures focus on RMA resource consent applications as this is the majority of our work in authorisations, with 1,500-2,200 applications received each year.

More information

Service measure 2, which tracks our compliance with processing consent applications within statutory timeframes, has an increased target of 95% for 2025/26 (up from 50% in 2024/25). The percentage processed within statutory timeframes continues to increase (82.9% at the end of quarter one), meaning that most applicants are receiving decisions in a timely manner. The percentage meeting timeframe compliance has shown a steady improvement over the last year.

Given the increase in the target to 95%, the timeframe compliance for the full year is at risk. Along with the more recent applications, the finite number of long-term applications, i.e. those lodged before 1 August 2023, are moving through the notification process to a decision. This timeframe is outside our control. As these applications have already exceeded the statutory time allowed, when they are decided, they bring the overall percentage of decisions within the statutory timeframe down. All those to be notified have hearings scheduled for 2025.