Monitoring resource consents

An applicant may suggest conditions, or the Council, or the Environmental Courtmay impose conditions. Once consent has been granted the Monitoring Officerdoes not have the ability to change conditions of consent, therefore a change ofconditions or deletion of conditions will need to be applied for.​

You must read and comply with the conditions associated with your resourceconsent and discuss any questions or concerns with Council early, and before anyintended changes to conditions take place.​

Some conditions may need further Council review before work starts, e.g., aConstruction Management Plans, Earthworks Management Plans, TrafficManagement Plans or Detailed Engineering Design may be required. Such plansare usually required to be received and certified by Council before works start.

You must let Council know your start date at least 48 hours before you start work.​

You can email compliance monitoring (monitoring@waidc.govt.nz) , or phone 0800492 452 and leave a message. In your email or phone message, please advise thefollowing:​

Almost all resource consents have some monitoring conditions, designed to makesure you comply with the conditions of the resource consent. Council do this:​

We monitor work throughout the duration of the work to confirm the activity on asite is consistent with the approved resource consent.​

Compliance monitoring provides ongoing validation that controls are in place andfunctioning as expected. It also helps you to identify issues and modify anyinappropriate actions or poor performance by the consent holder or anyone actingon your behalf before damage to the environment or other adverse effects occur,or expensive mitigation is required.

Almost all resource consents require monitoring to ensure compliance withconditions imposed by the Council or the Environment Count.​

Resource consents that have certain environmental effects that need to bemitigated will have more specific conditions. For example, there may beconditions related to landscape planting, earthworks, or other constructioneffects, noise controls, or other conditions relevant to the nature of the effects thatmight arise when the resource consent is undertaken. 

Council charge time by the hour for the time we spend monitoring your resourceconsent. This time includes the reviewing of the conditions, any site visits, and/orwritten communication with you. ​

A monitoring fee is charged at the time of finalising your resource consent if yourresource consent is granted. Any additional time spent monitoring conditions willbe charged on an hourly basis.

Monitoring is focused according to the seriousness of the risk. While all resourceconsents are monitored, activities that pose the greatest potential risk to theenvironment and community are given the highest priority and are monitored moreclosely, such as those consents have been publicly notified.​

We will normally visit the work site at least once while work is underway. Thenumber of visits depends on the size of the project and how well you are complyingwith the conditions. Most resource consents will need two or more siteinspections. Additional visits may be required if the resource consent is complexor has a significant number of conditions imposed. ​

There are also consents that have conditions that need to be monitored for the lifeof the activity. These consents will be monitored either yearly, two yearly, or lessfrequently.​

Most monitoring site inspections involve an external visual site inspection, and youand your agent do not need to be there. If you would like to be at the inspection, orknow when it will be, please contact the Monitoring Officer to arrange a suitabletime.​

If we are doing a spot check, we may not be able to make an appointment with you.​

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Monitoring Officer who can help you decide on the best action. It is important to get it right the first time, or you may need to apply for a new resource consent.​

If you have not complied with resource consent conditions, there may be adverse effects on the environment and Council may need to take enforcement action to rectify the issue.​

If you have any questions, please contact our Resource Consents Monitoring Team via email (monitoring@waidc.govt.nz), or phone 0800 492 452.